Application server blade for embedded storage appliance

ABSTRACT

An application server blade for an embedded storage appliance is disclosed. The blade includes a printed circuit board (PCB) with a connector for connecting to a chassis backplane including a local bus. Affixed on the PCB is a server, a portion of a storage controller, and an I/O link coupling the server and storage controller portion. The server transmits packets on the I/O link to the storage controller portion. The packets include commands to transfer data to a storage device controlled by the storage controller. The storage controller portion receives the packets from the server on the I/O link and forwards the commands on the backplane local bus to another portion of the storage controller affixed on a separate PCB also enclosed in the chassis. The blade also includes a removal mechanism for hot-replacement of the blade in the chassis. The blade architecture facilitates software reuse.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of the following U.S. ProvisionalApplication(s) which are incorporated herein by reference for allintents and purposes:

Ser. No. Filing Date Title 60/473355 Apr. 23, 2003 LIBERTY APPLICATIONBLADE 60/554052 Mar. 17, 2004 LIBERTY APPLICATION BLADEThis application is related to the following co-pending U.S. PatentApplications, all of which are being filed on the same day, and allhaving a common assignee and common inventors:

Filing Ser. No. Date Title 10/831,689 Apr. 23, 2004 NETWORK STORAGEAPPLIANCE WITH INTEGRATED REDUNDANT SERVERS AND STORAGE CONTROLLERS10/830,876 Apr. 23, 2004 NETWORK, STORAGE APPLIANCE, AND METHOD FOREXTERNAL- IZING AN INTERNAL I/O LINK BETWEEN A SERVER AND A STORAGECONTROLLER IN- TEGRATED WITHIN THE STORAGE APPLIANCE CHASSIS 10/831,688Apr. 23, 2004 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORAGE CONTROLLER TO DETER-MINISTICALLY KILL ONE OF REDUNDANT SERVERS INTE- GRATED WITHIN THESTORAGE CONTROLLED CHASSIS 10/830,875 Apr. 23, 2004 APPARATUS AND METHODFOR DETERMINISTICALLY PERFORM- ING ACTIVE-ACTIVE FAIL- OVER OF REDUNDANTSERVERS IN RESPONSE TO A HEARTBEAT LINK FAILURE 10/831,661 Apr. 23, 2004NETWORK STORAGE APPLIANCE WITH INTEGRATED SERVER AND REDUNDANT STORAGECONTROLLERS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to the field of network storage in acomputer network and particularly to the integration of server computersinto a network storage appliance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Historically, computer systems have each included their own storagewithin the computer system enclosure, or chassis, or “box.” A typicalcomputer system included a hard disk, such as an IDE or SCSI disk,directly attached to a disk controller, which was in turn connected tothe motherboard by a local bus. This model is commonly referred to asdirect attached storage (DAS).

However, this model has certain disadvantages in an enterprise, such asa business or university, in which many computers are networkedtogether, each having its own DAS. One potential disadvantage is theinefficient use of the storage devices. Each computer may only use arelatively small percentage of the space on its disk drive with theremainder of the space being wasted. A second potential disadvantage isthe difficulty of managing the storage devices for the potentially manycomputers in the network. A third potential disadvantage is that the DASmodel does not facilitate applications in which the various users of thenetwork need to access a common large set of data, such as a database.These disadvantages, among others, have caused a trend toward morecentralized, shared storage in computer networks.

Initially the solution was to employ centralized servers, such as fileservers, which included large amounts of storage shared by the variousworkstations in the network. That is, each server had its own DAS thatwas shared by the other computers in the network. The centralized serverDAS could be managed more easily by network administrators since itpresented a single set of storage to manage, rather than many smallerstorage sets on each of the individual workstations. Additionally, thenetwork administrators could monitor the amount of storage space neededand incrementally add storage devices on the server DAS on an as-neededbasis, thereby more efficiently using storage device space. Furthermore,because the data was centralized, all the users of the network whoneeded to access a database, for example, could do so withoutoverloading one user's computer.

However, a concurrent trend was toward a proliferation of servers.Today, many enterprises include multiple servers, such as a file server,a print server, an email server, a web server, a database server, etc.,and potentially multiple of each of these types of servers.Consequently, the same types of problems that existed with theworkstation DAS model existed again with the server DAS model.

Network attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) modelswere developed to address this problem. In a NAS/SAN model, a storagecontroller that controls storage devices (typically representing a largeamount of storage) exists as a distinct entity on a network, such as anEthernet or FibreChannel network, that is accessed by each of theservers in the enterprise. That is, the servers share the storagecontrolled by the storage controller over the network. In the NAS model,the storage controller presents the storage at a filesystem level,whereas in the SAN model, the storage controller presents the storage ata block level, such as in the SCSI block level protocol. The NAS/SANmodel provides similar solutions to the fileserver DAS model problemsthat the fileserver DAS model provided to the workstation DAS problems.In the NAS/SAN model, the storage controllers have their own enclosures,or chassis, or boxes, discrete from the server boxes. Each chassisprovides its own power and cooling, and since the chassis are discrete,they require networking cables to connect them, such as Ethernet orFibreChannel cables.

Another recent trend is toward storage application servers. In a commonNAS/SAN model, one or more storage application servers resides in thenetwork between the storage controller and the other servers, andexecutes storage software applications that provided value-added storagefunctions that benefit all of the servers accessing the common storagecontroller. These storage applications are also commonly referred to as“middleware.” Examples of middleware include data backup, remotemirroring, data snapshot, storage virtualization, data replication,hierarchical storage management (HSM), data content caching, datastorage provisioning, and file service applications. The storageapplication servers provide a valuable function; however, they introduceyet another set of discrete separately powered and cooled boxes thatmust be managed, require additional space and cost, and introduceadditional cabling in the network.

Therefore, what is needed is a way to improve the reliability andmanageability and reduce the cost and physical space of a NAS/SANsystem. It is also desirable to obtain these improvements in a mannerthat capitalizes on the use of existing software to minimize the amountof software development necessary, thereby achieving improved time tomarket and a reduction in development cost and resources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the present invention provides a server blade. The serverblade includes a computer having an input/output (I/O) port. The serverblade also includes an I/O interface controller. The I/O interfacecontroller includes an I/O port coupled via an I/O link to the I/O portof the computer, for transferring data therewith. The I/O interfacecontroller also includes a local bus interface, for interfacing to alocal bus. The server blade comprises a field replaceable unit (FRU)including the computer and the I/O interface controller, configured toplug into a backplane comprising the local bus, thereby enabling datatransfers with other FRUs coupled to the backplane. The I/O interfacecontroller comprises a portion of a storage controller whose remainingportions are comprised in the other FRUs coupled to the backplane. TheI/O interface controller is programmable via the local bus by amicroprocessor of the storage controller to perform data transfersbetween the computer and storage devices controlled by the storagecontroller. At least one of the other FRUs comprises the microprocessor.

An advantage of the present invention is that it facilitates softwarereuse, thereby potentially reducing software development time and cost.In one aspect, having the server and storage controller communicate viathe I/O link (rather than via a local bus, for example) even though theyare in the same chassis, and particularly the portion of the storagecontroller that communicates with the server being on the same blade asthe server, causes the storage controller to retain its stand-alonenature. Consequently, device drivers for stand-alone storagecontrollers, such as FibreChannel SCSI or iSCSI drivers, that alreadyexist, or require minor modification, may be executed by the server tocommunicate with the storage controller rather than having to developnew device drivers. Furthermore, the stand-along nature of the storagecontroller provides operating system independence and interoperabilityadvantages. Still further, the presence of the I/O link enables the I/Olink to be externalized, thereby enabling other servers outside thechassis to access the storage controller in addition to the serverinside the chassis accessing the storage controller. In another aspect,the firmware of the storage controller may require relatively smallmodifications since the portion of the storage controller on the serverblade is similar to existing architectures, and communicates via thelocal bus comprised in the backplane connecting the server blade and theother portions of the storage controller. In another aspect, because theserver substantially conforms to a standard server architecture, such asan x86 PC architecture with standard peripheral mappings, operatingsystems may be ported to the server with a relatively small softwaredevelopment effort, and storage application software may execute on theserver with little or no software development required.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a prior art computer network.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a computer network according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the computer network of FIG. 2including the storage appliance of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the storage appliance ofFIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the storage appliance ofFIG. 4 illustrating the interconnection of the various local businterconnections of the blade modules of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the logical flow of data throughthe storage appliance of FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the storage appliance ofFIG. 5 illustrating the application server blades and data managerblades in more detail.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the applicationserver blade of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the physical layout of a circuit boardof one embodiment of the application server blade of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of one embodiment of the faceplate of theapplication server blade of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the software architecture of theapplication server blade of FIG. 8.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating the storage appliance of FIG. 5in a fully fault-tolerant configuration in the computer network of FIG.2.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating the computer network of FIG. 12in which a data gate blade has failed.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating the computer network of FIG. 12in which a data manager blade has failed.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating the computer network of FIG. 12in which an application server blade has failed.

FIG. 16 is a diagram of a prior art computer network.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram illustrating the storage appliance of FIG. 2.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerant active-activefailover of the application server blades of the storage appliance ofFIG. 17.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerant active-activefailover of the application server blades of the storage appliance ofFIG. 17.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerant active-activefailover of the application server blades of the storage appliance ofFIG. 17 according to an alternate embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating the interconnection of thevarious storage appliance blades via the BCI buses of FIG. 7.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating the interconnection of thevarious storage appliance blades via the BCI buses of FIG. 7 anddiscrete reset signals according to an alternate embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the storageappliance of FIG. 2 comprising a single application server blade.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the storageappliance of FIG. 2 comprising a single application server blade.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating the computer network of FIG. 2and portions of the storage appliance of FIG. 12 and in detail oneembodiment of the port combiner of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a diagram of a prior art computer network 100is shown. The computer network 100 includes a plurality of clientcomputers 102 coupled to a plurality of traditional server computers 104via a network 114. The network 114 components may include switches,hubs, routers, and the like. The computer network 100 also includes aplurality of storage application servers 106 coupled to the traditionalservers 104 via the network 114. The computer network 100 also includesone or more storage controllers 108 coupled to the storage applicationservers 106 via the network 114. The computer network 100 also includesstorage devices 112 coupled to the storage controllers 108.

The clients 102 may include, but are not limited to workstations,personal computers, notebook computers, or personal digital assistants(PDAs), and the like. Typically, the clients 102 are used by end usersto perform computing tasks, including but not limited to, wordprocessing, database access, data entry, email access, internet access,spreadsheet access, graphic development, scientific calculations, or anyother computing tasks commonly performed by users of computing systems.The clients 102 may also include a computer used by a systemadministrator to administer the various manageable elements of thenetwork 100. The clients 102 may or may not include direct attachedstorage (DAS), such as a hard disk drive.

Portions of the network 114 may include, but are not limited to, links,switches, routers, hubs, directors, etc. performing the followingprotocols: FibreChannel (FC), Ethernet, Infiniband, TCP/IP, SmallComputer Systems Interface (SCSI), HIPPI, Token Ring, Arcnet, FDDI,LocalTalk, ESCON, FICON, ATM, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), SerialAdvanced Technology Attachment (SATA), and the like, and relevantcombinations thereof.

The traditional servers 104 may include, but are not limited to fileservers, print servers, enterprise servers, mail servers, web servers,database servers, departmental servers, and the like. Typically, thetraditional servers 104 are accessed by the clients 102 via the network114 to access shared files, shared databases, shared printers, email,the internet, or other computing services provided by the traditionalservers 104. The traditional servers 104 may or may not include directattached storage (DAS), such as a hard disk drive. However, at least aportion of the storage utilized by the traditional servers 104 comprisesdetached storage provided on the storage devices 112 controlled by thestorage controllers 108.

The storage devices 112 may include, but are not limited to, diskdrives, tape drives, or optical drives. The storage devices 112 may begrouped by the storage application servers 106 and/or storagecontrollers 108 into logical storage devices using any of well-knownmethods for grouping physical storage devices, including but not limitedto mirroring, striping, or other redundant array of inexpensive disks(RAID) methods. The logical storage devices may also comprise a portionof a single physical storage device or a portion of a grouping ofstorage devices.

The storage controllers 108 may include, but are not limited to, aredundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) controller. The storagecontrollers 108 control the storage devices 112 and interface with thestorage application servers 106 via the network 114 to provide storagefor the traditional servers 104.

The storage application servers 106 comprise computers capable ofexecuting storage application software, such as data backup, remotemirroring, data snapshot, storage virtualization, data replication,hierarchical storage management (HSM), data content caching, datastorage provisioning, and file service applications.

As may be observed from FIG. 1, in the prior art computer network 100the storage application servers 106 are physically discrete from thestorage controllers 108. That is, they reside in physically discreteenclosures, or chassis. Consequently, network cables must be runexternally between the two or more chassis to connect the storagecontrollers 108 and the storage application servers 106. This exposesthe external cables for potential damage, for example by networkadministrators, thereby jeopardizing the reliability of the computernetwork 100. Also, the cabling may be complex, and therefore prone to beconnected incorrectly by users. Additionally, there is cost and spaceassociated with each chassis of the storage controllers 108 and thestorage application servers 106, and each chassis must typically includeits own separate cooling and power system. Furthermore, the discretestorage controllers 108 and storage application servers 106 constitutediscrete entities to be configured and managed by networkadministrators. However, many of these disadvantages are overcome by thepresently disclosed network storage appliance of the present invention,as will now be described.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a diagram of a computer network 200 accordingto the present invention is shown. In one embodiment, the clients 102,traditional servers 104, storage devices 112, and network 114 aresimilar to like-numbered elements of FIG. 1. The computer network 200 ofFIG. 2 includes a network storage appliance 202, which integratesstorage application servers and storage controllers in a single chassis.The storage appliance 202 is coupled to the traditional servers 104 viathe network 114, as shown, to provide detached storage, such as storagearea network (SAN) storage or network attached storage (NAS), for thetraditional servers 104 by controlling the storage devices 112 coupledto the storage appliance 202. Advantageously, the storage appliance 202provides the traditional servers 104 with two interfaces to the detachedstorage: one directly to the storage controllers within the storageappliance 202, and another to the servers integrated into the storageappliance 202 chassis, which in turn directly access the storagecontrollers via internal high speed I/O links within the storageappliance 202 chassis. In one embodiment, the servers and storagecontrollers in the storage appliance 202 comprise redundanthot-replaceable field replaceable units (FRUs), thereby providingfault-tolerance and high data availability. That is, one of theredundant FRUs may be replaced during operation of the storage appliance202 without loss of availability of the data stored on the storagedevices 112. However, single storage controller and single serverembodiments are also contemplated. Advantageously, the integration ofthe storage application servers into a single chassis with the storagecontrollers provides the potential for improved manageability, lowercost, less space, better diagnosability, and better cabling for improvedreliability.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a block diagram illustrating the computernetwork 200 of FIG. 2 including the storage appliance 202 of FIG. 2 isshown. The computer network 200 includes the clients 102 and/ortraditional servers 104 of FIG. 2, referred to collectively as hostcomputers 302, networked to the storage appliance 202. The computernetwork 200 also includes external devices 322 networked to the storageappliance 202, i.e., devices external to the storage appliance 202. Theexternal devices 322 may include, but are not limited to, hostcomputers, tape drives or other backup type devices, storage controllersor storage appliances, switches, routers, or hubs. The computer network200 also includes the storage devices 112 of FIG. 2 coupled to thestorage appliance 202. The storage appliance 202 includes applicationservers 306 coupled to storage controllers 308. The host computers 302are coupled to the application servers 306, and the storage devices 112are coupled to the storage controllers 308. In one embodiment, theapplication servers 306 are coupled to the storage controllers 308 viahigh speed I/O links 304, such as FibreChannel, Infiniband, or Ethernetlinks, as described below in detail. The high speed I/O links 304 arealso provided by the storage appliance 202 external to its chassis 414(of FIG. 4) via port combiners 842 (shown in FIG. 8) and expansion I/Oconnectors 754 (shown in FIG. 7) to which the external devices 1232 arecoupled. The externalizing of the I/O links 304 advantageously enablesthe storage controllers 308 to be directly accessed by other externalnetwork devices 322, such as the host computers, switches, routers, orhubs. Additionally, the externalizing of the I/O links 304advantageously enables the application servers 306 to directly accessother external storage devices 322, such as tape drives, storagecontrollers, or other storage appliances, as discussed below.

The application servers 306 execute storage software applications, suchas those described above that are executed by the storage applicationservers 106 of FIG. 1. However, other embodiments are contemplated inwhich the application servers 306 execute software applications such asthose described above that are executed by the traditional servers 104of FIG. 1. In these embodiments, the hosts 302 may comprise clients 102such as those of FIG. 2 networked to the storage appliance 202. Thestorage controllers 308 control the storage devices 112 and interfacewith the application servers 306 to provide storage for the hostcomputers 302 and to perform data transfers between the storage devices112 and the application servers 306 and/or host computers 302. Thestorage controllers 308 may include, but are not limited to, redundantarray of inexpensive disks (RAID) controllers.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a block diagram of one embodiment of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 3 is shown. The storage appliance 202includes a plurality of hot-replaceable field replaceable units (FRUs),referred to as modules or blades, as shown, enclosed in a chassis 414.The blades plug into a backplane 412, or mid-plane 412, enclosed in thechassis 414 which couples the blades together and provides acommunication path between them. In one embodiment, each of the bladesplugs into the same side of the chassis 414. In one embodiment, thebackplane 412 comprises an active backplane. In one embodiment, thebackplane 412 comprises a passive backplane. In the embodiment of FIG.4, the blades include two power manager blades 416 (referred toindividually as power manager blade A 416A and power manager blade B416B), two power port blades 404 (referred to individually as power portblade A 404A and power port blade B 404B), two application server blades402 (referred to individually as application server blade A 402A andapplication server blade B 402B), two data manager blades 406 (referredto individually as data manager blade A 406A and data manager blade B406B), and two data gate blades 408 (referred to individually as datagate blade A 408A and data gate blade B 408B), as shown.

The power manager blades 416 each comprise a power supply for supplyingpower to the other blades in the storage appliance 202. In oneembodiment, each power manager blade 416 comprises a 240 watt AC-DCpower supply. In one embodiment, the power manager blades 416 areredundant. That is, if one of the power manager blades 416 fails, theother power manager blade 416 continues to provide power to the otherblades in order to prevent failure of the storage appliance 202, therebyenabling the storage appliance 202 to continue to provide the hostcomputers 302 access to the storage devices 112.

The power port blades 404 each comprise a cooling system for cooling theblades in the chassis 414. In one embodiment, each of the power portblades 404 comprises direct current fans for cooling, an integrated EMIfilter, and a power switch. In one embodiment, the power port blades 404are redundant. That is, if one of the power port blades 404 fails, theother power port blade 404 continues to cool the storage appliance 202in order to prevent failure of the storage appliance 202, therebyenabling the storage appliance 202 to continue to provide the hostcomputers 302 access to the storage devices 112.

Data manager blade A 406A, data gate blade A 408A, and a portion ofapplication server blade A 402A logically comprise storage controller A308A of FIG. 3; and the remainder of application server blade A 402Acomprises application server A 306A of FIG. 3. Data manager blade B406B, data gate blade B 408B, and a portion of application server bladeB 402B comprise the other storage controller 308 of FIG. 3, and theremainder of application server blade B 402B comprises the otherapplication server 306 of FIG. 3.

The application servers 306 comprise computers configured to executesoftware applications, such as storage software applications. In oneembodiment, the application servers 306 function as a redundant pairsuch that if one of the application servers 306 fails, the remainingapplication server 306 takes over the functionality of the failedapplication server 306 such that the storage appliance 202 continues toprovide the host computers 302 access to the storage devices 112.Similarly, if the application software executing on the applicationservers 306 performs a function independent of the host computers 302,such as a backup operation of the storage devices 112, if one of theapplication servers 306 fails, the remaining application server 306continues to perform its function independent of the host computers 302.The application servers 306, and in particular the application serverblades 402, are described in more detail below.

Each of the data gate blades 408 comprises one or more I/O interfacecontrollers (such as FC interface controllers 1206 and 1208 of FIG. 12)for interfacing with the storage devices 112. In one embodiment, each ofthe data gate blades 408 comprises redundant interface controllers forproviding fault-tolerant access to the storage devices 112. In oneembodiment, the interface controllers comprise dual FibreChannel (FC)interface controllers for interfacing to the storage devices 112 via adual FC arbitrated loop configuration, as shown in FIG. 12. However,other embodiments are contemplated in which the data gate blades 408interface with the storage devices 112 via other interfaces including,but not limited to, Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA), SAS, SATA,Ethernet, Infiniband, SCSI, HIPPI, ESCON, FICON, or relevantcombinations thereof. The storage devices 112 and storage appliance 202may communicate using stacked protocols, such as SCSI over FibreChannelor Internet SCSI (iSCSI). In one embodiment, at least a portion of theprotocol employed between the storage appliance 202 and the storagedevices 112 includes a low-level block interface, such as the SCSIprotocol. Additionally, in one embodiment, at least a portion of theprotocol employed between the host computers 302 and the storageappliance 202 includes a low-level block interface, such as the SCSIprotocol. The interface controllers perform the protocol necessary totransfer commands and data between the storage devices 112 and thestorage appliance 202. The interface controllers also include a localbus interface for interfacing to local buses (shown as local buses 516of FIG. 5) that facilitate command and data transfers between the datagate blades 408 and the other storage appliance 202 blades. In theredundant interface controller embodiment of FIG. 4, each of theinterface controllers is coupled to a different local bus (as shown inFIG. 5), and each data gate blade 408 also includes a local bus bridge(shown as bus bridge 1212 of FIG. 12) for bridging the two local buses.In one embodiment, the data gate blades 408 function as a redundant pairsuch that if one of the data gate blades 408 fails, the storageappliance 202 continues to provide the host computers 302 andapplication servers 306 access to the storage devices 112 via theremaining data gate blade 408.

Each of the data manager blades 406 comprises a processor (such as CPU702 of FIG. 7) for executing programs to control the transfer of databetween the storage devices 112 and the application servers 306 and/orhost computers 302. Each of the data manager blades 406 also comprises amemory (such as memory 706 in FIG. 7) for buffering data transferredbetween the storage devices 112 and the application servers 306 and/orhost computers 302. The processor receives commands from the applicationservers 306 and/or host computers 302 and responsively issues commandsto the data gate blade 408 interface controllers to accomplish datatransfers with the storage devices 112. In one embodiment, the datamanager blades 406 also include a direct memory access controller (DMAC)(such as may be included in the local bus bridge/memory controller 704shown in FIG. 7) for performing data transfers to and from the buffermemory on the local buses. The processor also issues commands to theDMAC and interface controllers on the application server blades 402(such as I/O interface controllers 746/748 of FIG. 7) to accomplish datatransfers between the data manager blade 406 buffer memory and theapplication servers 306 and/or host computers 302 via the local busesand high speed I/O links 304. The processor may also perform storagecontroller functions such as RAID control, logical block translation,buffer management, and data caching. Each of the data manager blades 406also comprises a memory controller (such as local bus bridge/memorycontroller 704 in FIG. 7) for controlling the buffer memory. The memorycontroller also includes a local bus interface for interfacing to thelocal buses that facilitate command and data transfers between the datamanager blades 406 and the other storage appliance 202 blades. In oneembodiment, each of the data manager blades 406 is coupled to adifferent redundant local bus pair, and each data manager blade 406 alsoincludes a local bus bridge (such as local bus bridge/memory controller704 in FIG. 7) for bridging between the two local buses of the pair. Inone embodiment, the data manager blades 406 function as a redundant pairsuch that if one of the data manager blades 406 fails, the remainingdata manager blade 406 takes over the functionality of the failed datamanager blade 406 such that the storage appliance 202 continues toprovide the host computers 302 and/or application servers 306 access tothe storage devices 112. In one embodiment, each data manager blade 406monitors the status of the other storage appliance 202 blades, includingthe other data manager blade 406, in order to perform failover functionsnecessary to accomplish fault-tolerant operation, as described herein.

In one embodiment, each of the data manager blades 406 also includes amanagement subsystem for facilitating management of the storageappliance 202 by a system administrator. In one embodiment, themanagement subsystem comprises an Advanced Micro Devices® Elan™microcontroller for facilitating communication with a user, such as asystem administrator. In one embodiment, the management subsystemreceives input from the user via a serial interface such as an RS-232interface. In one embodiment, the management subsystem receives userinput from the user via an Ethernet interface and provides a web-basedconfiguration and management utility. In addition to its configurationand management functions, the management subsystem also performsmonitoring functions, such as monitoring the temperature, presence, andstatus of the storage devices 112 or other components of the storageappliance 202, and monitoring the status of other critical components,such as fans or power supplies, such as those of the power managerblades 416 and power port blades 404.

The chassis 414 comprises a single enclosure for enclosing the blademodules and backplane 412 of the storage appliance 202. In oneembodiment, the chassis 414 comprises a chassis for being mounted inwell known 19″ wide racks. In one embodiment, the chassis 414 comprisesa one unit (1U) high chassis.

In one embodiment, the power manager blades 416, power port blades 404,data manager blades 406, and data gate blades 408 are similar in someaspects to corresponding modules in the RIO Raid Controller product soldby Chaparral Network Storage of Longmont, Colo.

Although the embodiment of FIG. 4 illustrates redundant modules, otherlower cost embodiments are contemplated in which some or all of theblade modules are not redundant.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a block diagram of one embodiment of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 4 illustrating the interconnection of thevarious local bus interconnections of the blade modules of FIG. 4 isshown. The storage appliance 202 in the embodiment of FIG. 5 includesfour local buses, denoted local bus A 516A, local bus B 516B, local busC 516C, and local bus D 516D, which are referred to collectively aslocal buses 516 or individually as local bus 516. In one embodiment, thelocal buses 516 comprise a high speed PCI-X local bus. Other embodimentsare contemplated in which the local buses 516 include, but are notlimited to a PCI, CompactPCI, PCI-Express, PCI-X2, EISA, VESA, VME,RapidIO, AGP, ISA, 3GIO, HyperTransport, Futurebus, MultiBus, or anysimilar local bus capable of transferring data at a high rate. As shown,data manager blade A 406A is coupled to local bus A 516A and local bus C516C; data manager blade B 406B is coupled to local bus B 516B and localbus D 516D; data gate blade A 408A is coupled to local bus A 516A andlocal bus B 516B; data gate blade B 408B is coupled to local bus C 516Cand local bus D 516D; application server blade A 402A is coupled tolocal bus A 516A and local bus B 516B; application server blade B 402Bis coupled to local bus C 516C and local bus D 516D. As may be observed,the coupling of the blades to the local buses 516 enables each of theapplication server blades 402 to communicate with each of the datamanager blades 406, and enables each of the data manager blades 406 tocommunicate with each of the data gate blades 408 and each of theapplication server blades 402. Furthermore, the hot-pluggable couplingof the FRU blades to the backplane 412 comprising the local buses 516enables fault-tolerant operation of the redundant storage controllers308 and application servers 306, as described in more detail below.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a block diagram illustrating the logical flowof data through the storage appliance 202 of FIG. 4 is shown. Theapplication server blades 402 receive data transfer requests from thehost computers 302 of FIG. 3, such as SCSI read and write commands, overan interface protocol link, including but not limited to FibreChannel,Ethernet, or Infiniband. The application server blades 402 process therequests and issue commands to the data manager blades 406 to performdata transfers to or from the storage devices 112 based on the type ofrequest received from the host computers 302. The data manager blades406 process the commands received from the application server blades 402and issue commands to the data gate blades 408, such as SCSI over FCprotocol commands, which the data gate blades 408 transmit to thestorage devices 112. The storage devices 112 process the commands andperform the appropriate data transfers to or from the data gate blades408. In the case of a write to the storage devices 112, the data istransmitted from the host computers 302 to the application server blades402 and then to the data manager blades 406 and then to the data gateblades 408 and then to the storage devices 112. In the case of a readfrom the storage devices 112, the data is transferred from the storagedevices 112 to the data gate blades 408 then to the data manager blades406 then to the application server blades 402 then to the host computers302.

As shown in FIG. 6, each of the application server blades 402 has a pathto each of the data manager blades 406, and each of the data managerblades 406 has a path to each of the data gate blades 408. In oneembodiment, the paths comprise the local buses 516 of FIG. 5.Additionally, in one embodiment, each of the host computers 302 has apath to each of the application server blades 402, and each of the datagate blades 408 has a path to each of the storage devices 112, as shown.Because each of the stages in the command and data transfers is aredundant pair, and a redundant communication path exists between eachof the redundant pairs of each stage of the transfer, a failure of anyone of the blades of a redundant pair does not cause a failure of thestorage appliance 202.

In one embodiment, the redundant application server blades 402 arecapable of providing an effective data transfer bandwidth ofapproximately 800 megabytes per second (MBps) between the host computers302 and the redundant storage controllers 308.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a block diagram of one embodiment of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 5 illustrating the application serverblades 402 and data manager blades 406 in more detail is shown. The datagate blades 408 of FIG. 5 are not shown in FIG. 7. In the embodiment ofFIG. 7, the local buses 516 of FIG. 5 comprise PCIX buses 516. FIG. 7illustrates application server blade 402A and 402B coupled to datamanager blade 406A and 406B via PCIX buses 516A, 516B, 516C, and 516Daccording to the interconnection shown in FIG. 5. The elements of theapplication server blades 402A and 402B are identical; however, theirinterconnections to the particular PCIX buses 516 are different asshown; therefore, the description of application server blade A 402A isidentical for application server blade B 402B except as noted below withrespect to the PCIX bus 516 interconnections. Similarly, with theexception of the PCIX bus 516 interconnections, the elements of the datamanager blades 406A and 406B are identical; therefore, the descriptionof data manager blade A 406A is identical for data manager blade B 406Bexcept as noted below with respect to the PCIX bus 516 interconnections.

In the embodiment of FIG. 7, application server blade A 402A comprisestwo logically-distinct portions, an application server 306 portion and astorage controller 308 portion, physically coupled by the I/O links 304of FIG. 3 and integrated onto a single FRU. The application server 306portion includes a CPU subsystem 714, Ethernet controller 732, and firstand second FC controllers 742/744, which comprise a server computeremployed to execute server software applications, similar to thoseexecuted by the storage application servers 106 and/or traditionalservers 104 of FIG. 1. The storage controller 308 portion of applicationserver blade A 402A, shown in the shaded area, includes third and fourthFC controllers 746/748, which are programmed by a data manager blade 406CPU 702 and are logically part of the storage controller 308 of FIG. 3.The storage controller 308 portions of the application server blades 402may be logically viewed as the circuitry of a data gate blade 408integrated onto the application server blade 402 to facilitate datatransfers between the data manager blades 406 and the application server306 portion of the application server blade 402. The storage controller308 portions of the application server blades 402 also facilitate datatransfers between the data manager blades 406 and external devices 322of FIG. 3 coupled to expansion I/O connectors 754 of the applicationserver blade 402.

Application server blade A 402A includes a CPU subsystem 714, describedin detail below, which is coupled to a PCI bus 722. The PCI bus 722 iscoupled to a dual port Ethernet interface controller 732, whose portsare coupled to connectors 756 on the application server blade 402faceplate (shown in FIG. 10) to provide local area network (LAN) or widearea network (WAN) access to application server blade A 402A by the hostcomputers 302 of FIG. 3. In one embodiment, one port of the Ethernetinterface controller 732 of application server blade A 402A is coupledto one port of the Ethernet interface controller 732 of applicationserver blade B 402B to provide a heartbeat link (such as heartbeat link1712 of FIG. 17) between the servers for providing redundantfault-tolerant operation of the two application server blades 402, asdescribed below. In one embodiment, the Ethernet controller 732 portsmay be used as a management interface to perform device management ofthe storage appliance 202. In one embodiment, the application servers306 may function as remote mirroring servers, and the Ethernetcontroller 732 ports may be used to transfer data to a remote mirrorsite. The CPU subsystem 714 is also coupled to a PCIX bus 724.

A first dual FibreChannel (FC) interface controller 742 is coupled tothe PCIX bus 724. The first FC interface controller 742 ports (alsoreferred to as front-end ports) are coupled to the I/O connectors 752 onthe application server blade 402 faceplate (shown in FIG. 10) to providethe host computers 302 NAS/SAN access to the application servers 306.The first FC controller 742 functions as a target device and may beconnected to the host computers 302 in a point-to-point, arbitratedloop, or switched fabric configuration. In FIG. 7 and the remainingFigures, a line connecting two FC ports, or a FC port and a FCconnector, indicates a bi-directional FC link, i.e., an FC link with atransmit path and a receive path between the two FC ports, or betweenthe FC port and the FC connector.

A second dual FC interface controller 744 is also coupled to the PCIXbus 724. The second FC controller 744 functions as an initiator device.The second FC interface controller 744 ports are coupled to theexpansion I/O connectors 754 on the application server blade 402faceplate (shown in FIG. 10) to provide a means for the CPU subsystem714 of the application server blade 402 to directly access devices 322of FIG. 3 external to the storage appliance 202 chassis 414, such asother storage controllers or storage appliances, tape drives, hostcomputers, switches, routers, and hubs. In addition, the expansion I/Oconnectors 754 provide the external devices 322 direct NAS/SAN access tothe storage controllers 308, rather than through the application servers306, as described in detail below. Advantageously, the expansion I/Oconnectors 754 provide externalization of the internal I/O links 304between the servers 306 and storage controllers 308 of FIG. 3, asdescribed in more detail below.

An industry standard architecture (ISA) bus 716 is also coupled to theCPU subsystem 714. A complex programmable logic device (CPLD) 712 iscoupled to the ISA bus 716. The CPLD 712 is also coupled to dual bladecontrol interface (BCI) buses 718. Although not shown in FIG. 7, one ofthe BCI buses 718 is coupled to data manager blade A 406A and data gateblade A 408A, and the other BCI bus 718 is coupled to data manager bladeB 406B and data gate blade B 408B, as shown in FIG. 21. The BCI buses718 are a proprietary 8-bit plus parity asynchronous multiplexedaddress/data bus supporting up to a 256 byte addressable region thatinterfaces the data manager blades 406 to the data gate blades 408 andapplication server blades 402. The BCI buses 718 enable each of the datamanager blades 406 to independently configure and monitor theapplication server blades 402 and data gate blades 408 via the CPLD 712.The BCI buses 718 are included in the backplane 412 of FIG. 4. The CPLD712 is described in more detail with respect to FIGS. 8, 21, and 22below.

Application server blade A 402A also includes a third dual FibreChannelinterface controller 746, coupled to PCIX bus 516A of FIG. 5, whose FCports are coupled to respective ones of the second dual FC interfacecontroller 744. Application server blade A 402A also includes a fourthdual FibreChannel interface controller 748, coupled to PCIX bus 516B ofFIG. 5, whose FC ports are coupled to respective ones of the second dualFC interface controller 744 and to respective ones of the third dual FCinterface controller 746. In the case of application server blade B402B, its third FC interface controller 746 PCIX interface couples toPCIX bus 516C of FIG. 5 and its fourth FC interface controller 748 PCIXinterface couples to PCIX bus 516D of FIG. 5. The third and fourth FCinterface controllers 746/748 function as target devices.

Data manager blade A 406A includes a CPU 702 and a memory 706, eachcoupled to a local bus bridge/memory controller 704. In one embodiment,the processor comprises a Pentium III microprocessor. In one embodiment,the memory 706 comprises DRAM used to buffer data transferred betweenthe storage devices 112 and the application server blade 402. The CPU702 manages use of buffer memory 706. In one embodiment, the CPU 702performs caching of the data read from the storage devices 112 into thebuffer memory 706. In one embodiment, data manager blade A 406A alsoincludes a memory coupled to the CPU 702 for storing programinstructions and data used by the CPU 702. In one embodiment, the localbus bridge/memory controller 704 comprises a proprietary integratedcircuit that controls the buffer memory 706. The local bus bridge/memorycontroller 704 also includes two PCIX bus interfaces for interfacing toPCIX bus 516A and 516C of FIG. 5. The local bus bridge/memory controller704 also includes circuitry for bridging the two PCIX buses 516A and516C. In the case of data manager blade B 406B, the local busbridge/memory controller 704 interfaces to and bridges PCIX buses 516Band 516D of FIG. 5. The local bus bridge/memory controller 704facilitates data transfers between each of the data manager blades 406and each of the application server blades 402 via the PCIX buses 516.

Several advantages are obtained by including the third and fourth FCinterface controllers 746/748 on the application server blade 402.First, the high-speed I/O links 304 between the second FC controller 744and the third/fourth FC controller 746/748 are etched into theapplication server blade 402 printed circuit board rather than beingdiscrete cables and connectors that are potentially more prone to beingdamaged or to other failure. Second, a local bus interface (e.g., PCIX)is provided on the application server blade 402 backplane 412 connector,which enables the application server blades 402 to interconnect andcommunicate via the local buses 516 of the backplane 412 with the datamanager blades 406 and data gate blades 408, which also include a localbus interface on their backplane 412 connector. Third, substantialsoftware development savings may be obtained from the storage appliance202 architecture. In particular, the software executing on the datamanager blades 406 and the application server blades 402 requires littlemodification to existing software. This advantage is discussed below inmore detail with respect to FIG. 11.

Referring now to FIG. 8, a block diagram illustrating one embodiment ofthe application server blade A 402A of FIG. 7 is shown. The applicationserver blade 402 includes the CPU subsystem 714 of FIG. 7, comprising aCPU 802 coupled to a north bridge 804 by a Gunning Transceiver Logic(GTL) bus 812 and a memory 806 coupled to the north bridge by adouble-data rate (DDR) bus 814. The memory 806 functions as a systemmemory for the application server blade 402. That is, programs and dataare loaded into the memory 806, such as from the DOC memory 838described below, and executed by the CPU 802. Additionally, the memory806 serves as a buffer for data transferred between the storage devices112 and the host computers 302. In particular, data is transferred fromthe host computers 302 through the first FC controller 742 and northbridge 804 into the memory 806, and vice versa. Similarly, data istransferred from the memory 806 through the north bridge 804, second FCcontroller 744, third or forth FC controller 746 or 748, and backplane412 to the data manager blades 406. The north bridge 804 also functionsas a bridge between the GTL bus 812/DDR bus 814 and the PCIX bus 724 andthe PCI bus 722 of FIG. 7. The CPU subsystem 714 also includes a southbridge 808 coupled to the PCI bus 722. The Ethernet controller 732 ofFIG. 7 is coupled to the PCI bus 722. In one embodiment, the connectors756 of FIG. 7 comprise RJ45 jacks, denoted 756A and 756B in FIG. 8, forcoupling to respective ports of the Ethernet controller 732 of FIG. 7for coupling to Ethernet links to the host computers 302. The southbridge 808 also provides an I²C bus by which temperature sensors 816 arecoupled to the south bridge 808. The temperature sensors 816 providetemperature information for critical components in the chassis 414, suchas of CPUs and storage devices 112, to detect potential failure sources.The south bridge 808 also functions as a bridge to the ISA bus 716 ofFIG. 7.

A FLASH memory 836, disk on chip (DOC) memory 838, dual UART 818, andthe CPLD 712 of FIG. 7 are coupled to the ISA bus 716. In oneembodiment, the FLASH memory 836 comprises a 16 MB memory used to storefirmware to bootstrap the application server blade 402 CPU 802. In oneembodiment, in which the application server blade 402 conformssubstantially to a personal computer (PC), the FLASH memory 836 stores aBasic Input/Output System (BIOS). In one embodiment, the DOC memory 838comprises a 128 MB NAND FLASH memory used to store, among other things,an operating system, application software, and data, such as web pages.Consequently, the application server blade 402 is able to boot andfunction as a stand-alone server. Advantageously, the application serverblade 402 provides the DOC memory 838 thereby alleviating the need for amechanical mass storage device, such as a hard disk drive, for storingthe operating system and application software. Additionally, the DOCmemory 838 may be used by the storage application software executing onthe application server blade 402 as a high speed storage device in astorage hierarchy to cache frequently accessed data from the storagedevices 112. In one embodiment, the application server blade 402includes a mechanical disk drive, such as a microdrive, for storing anoperating system, application software, and data instead of or inaddition to the DOC memory 838. The two UART 818 ports are coupled torespective 3-pin serial connectors denoted 832A and 832B for coupling toserial RS-232 links. In one embodiment, the two serial ports functionsimilarly to COM1 and COM2 ports of a personal computer. Additionally,the RS-232 ports may be used for debugging and manufacturing support.The CPLD 712 is coupled to a light emitting diode (LED) 834. The CPLD712 is coupled via the BCI buses 718 of FIG. 7 to a connector 828 forplugging into the backplane 412 of FIG. 4.

The CPLD 712 includes a 2K×8 SRAM port for accessing a shared mailboxmemory region. The CPLD 712 also provides the ability to program chipselect decodes for other application server blade 402 devices such asthe FLASH memory 836 and DOC memory 838. The CPLD 712 provides dualindependent BCI bus interfaces by which the data manager blades 406 cancontrol and obtain status of the application server blades 402. Forexample, the CPLD 712 provides the ability for the data manager blade406 to reset the application server blades 402 and data gate blades 408,such as in the event of detection of a failure. The CPLD 712 alsoprovides the ability to determine the status of activity on the variousFibreChannel links and to control the status indicator LED 834. The CPLD712 also enables monitoring of the I/O connectors 752/754 and control ofport combiners 842, as described below. The CPLD 712 also enablescontrol of hot-plugging of the various modules, or blades, in thestorage appliance 202. The CPLD 712 also provides general purposeregisters for use as application server blade 402 and data manager blade406 mailboxes and doorbells.

The first and second FC controllers 742/744 of FIG. 7 are coupled to thePCIX bus 724. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the I/O connectors 752 and754 of FIG. 7 comprise FC small form-factor pluggable sockets (SFPs).The two ports of the first FC controller 742 are coupled to respectiveSFPs 752A and 752B for coupling to FC links to the host computers 302.The two ports of the second FC controller 744 are coupled to respectiveport combiners denoted 842A and 842B. The port combiners 842 are alsocoupled to respective SFPs 754A and 754B for coupling to FC links to theexternal devices 322 of FIG. 3. One port of each of the third and fourthFC controllers 746 and 748 of FIG. 7 are coupled to port combiner 842A,and one port of each of the third and fourth FC controllers 746 and 748are coupled to port combiner 842B. The PCIX interface of each of thethird and fourth FC controllers 746 and 748 are coupled to the backplaneconnector 828 via PCIX bus 516A and 516B, respectively, of FIG. 5.

In one embodiment, each of the port combiners 842 comprises aFibreChannel arbitrated loop hub that allows devices to be inserted intoor removed from an active FC arbitrated loop. The arbitrated loop hubincludes four FC port bypass circuits (PBCs), or loop resiliencycircuits (LRCs), serially coupled in a loop configuration, as describedin detail with respect to FIG. 25. A PBC or LRC is a circuit that may beused to keep a FC arbitrated loop operating when a FC L_Port location isphysically removed or not populated, L_Ports are powered-off, or afailing L_Port is present. A PBC or LRC provides the means to route theserial FC channel signal past an L_Port. A FC L_Port is an FC port thatsupports the FC arbitrated loop topology. Hence, for example, if port1of each of the second, third, and fourth FC controllers 744/746/748 areall connected and operational, and SFP 754A has an operational devicecoupled to it, then each of the four FC devices may communicate with oneanother via port combiner 842A. However, if the FC device connected toany one or two of the ports is removed, or becomes non-operational, thenthe port combiner 842A will bypass the non-operational ports keeping theloop intact and enabling the remaining two or three FC devices tocontinue communicating through the port combiner 842A. Hence, portcombiner 842A enables the second FC controller 744 to communicate witheach of the third and fourth FC controllers 746/748, and consequently toeach of the data manager blades 406; additionally, port combiner 842Aenables external devices 322 of FIG. 3 coupled to SFP 754A to alsocommunicate with each of the third and fourth FC controllers 746/748,and consequently to each of the data manager blades 406. Although anembodiment is described herein in which the port combiners 842 are FCLRC hubs, other embodiments are contemplated in which the port combiners842 are FC loop switches. Because the FC loop switches are cross-pointswitches, they provide higher performance since more than one port paircan communicate simultaneously through the switch. Furthermore, the portcombiners 842 may comprise Ethernet or Infiniband switches, rather thanFC devices.

In one embodiment, the application servers 306 substantially comprisepersonal computers without mechanical hard drives, keyboard, and mouseconnectors. That is, the application servers 306 portion of theapplication server blade 402 includes off-the-shelf components mappedwithin the address spaces of the system just as in a PC. The CPUsubsystem 714 is logically identical to a PC, including the mappings ofthe FLASH memory 836 and system RAM 806 into the CPU 802 address space.The system peripherals, such as the UARTs 818, interrupt controllers,real-time clock, etc., are logically identical to and mapping the sameas in a PC. The PCI 722, PCIX 724, ISA 716 local buses and north bridge804 and south bridge 808 are similar to those commonly used in high-endPC servers. The Ethernet controller 732 and first and second FCinterface controllers 742/744 function as integrated Ethernet networkinterface cards (NICs) and FC host bus adapters (HBAs), respectively.All of this advantageously potentially results in the ability to executestandard off-the-shelf software applications on the application server306, and the ability to run a standard operating system on theapplication servers 306 with little modification. The hard drivefunctionality may be provided by the DOC memory 838, and the userinterface may be provided via the Ethernet controller 732 interfaces andweb-based utilities, or via the UART 818 interfaces.

As indicated in FIG. 8, the storage controller 308 portion of theapplication server blade 402 includes the third and fourth interfacecontrollers 746/748, and the SFPs 754; the remainder comprises theapplication server 306 portion of the application server blade 402.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a diagram illustrating the physical layout of acircuit board of one embodiment of the application server blade 402 ofFIG. 8 is shown. The layout diagram is drawn to scale. As shown, theboard is 5.040 inches wide and 11.867 inches deep. The elements of FIG.8 are included in the layout and numbered similarly. The first andsecond FC controllers 742/744 each comprise an ISP2312 dual channelFibreChannel to PCI-X controller produced by the QLogic Corporation ofAliso Viejo, Calif. Additionally, a 512K×18 synchronous SRAM is coupledto each of the first and second FC controllers 742/744. The third andfourth FC controllers 746/748 each comprise a JNIC-1560 Milano dualchannel FibreChannel to PCI-X controller. The south bridge 808 comprisesan Intel PIIX4E, which includes internal peripheral interrupt controller(PIC), programmable interval timer (PIT), and real-time clock (RTC). Thenorth bridge 804 comprises a Micron PAD21 Copperhead. The memory 806comprises up to 1 GB of DDR SDRAM ECC-protected memory DIMM. FIG. 9illustrates an outline for a memory 806 DIMM to be plugged into a 184pin right angle socket. The CPU 802 comprises a 933 MHz Intel Tualatinlow voltage mobile Pentium 3 with a 32 KB on-chip L1 cache and a 512Kon-chip L2 cache. The FLASH memory 836 comprises a 16 MB×8 FLASH memorychip. The DOC memory 838 comprises two 32 MB each NAND FLASH memorychips that emulate an embedded IDE hard drive. The port combiners 842each comprise a Vitesse VSC7147-01. The Ethernet controller 732comprises an Intel 82546EB 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet controller.

Although an embodiment is described using particular components, such asparticular microprocessors, interface controllers, bridge circuits,memories, etc., other similar suitable components may be employed in thestorage appliance 202.

Referring now to FIG. 10, an illustration of one embodiment of thefaceplate 1000 of the application server blade 402 of FIG. 9 is shown.The faceplate 1000 includes two openings for receiving the two RJ45Ethernet connectors 756 of FIG. 7. The faceplate 1000 also includes twoopenings for receiving the two pairs of SFPs 752 and 754 of FIG. 7. Theface plate 1000 is one unit (1 U) high for mounting in a standard 19inch wide chassis 414. The faceplate 1000 includes removal latches 1002,or removal mechanisms 1002, such as those well-known in the art of blademodules, that work together with mechanisms on the chassis 414 to enablea person to remove the application server blade 402 from the chassis 414backplane 412 and to insert the application server blade 402 into thechassis 414 backplane 412 while the storage appliance 202 is operationalwithout interrupting data availability on the storage devices 112. Inparticular, during insertion, the mechanisms 1002 cause the applicationserver blade 402 connector to mate with the backplane 412 connector andimmediately begin to receive power from the backplane 412; conversely,during removal, the mechanisms 1002 cause the application server blade402 connector to disconnect from the backplane 412 connector to which itmates, thereby removing power from the application server blade 402.Each of the blades in the storage appliance 202 includes removal latchessimilar to the removal latches 1002 of the application server blade 402faceplate 1000 shown in FIG. 10. Advantageously, the removal mechanism1002 enables a person to remove and insert a blade module without havingto open the chassis 414.

Referring now to FIG. 11, a block diagram illustrating the softwarearchitecture of the application server blade 402 of FIG. 8 is shown. Thesoftware architecture includes a loader 1104. The loader 1104 executesfirst when power is supplied to the CPU 802. The loader 1104 performsinitial boot functions for the hardware and loads and executes theoperating system. The loader 1104 is also capable of loading andflashing new firmware images into the FLASH memory 836. In oneembodiment, the loader 1104 is substantially similar to a personalcomputer BIOS. In one embodiment, the loader 1104 comprises the RedBootboot loader product by Red Hat, Inc. of Raleigh, N.C. The architecturealso includes power-on self-test (POST), diagnostics, and manufacturingsupport software 1106. In one embodiment, the diagnostics softwareexecuted by the CPU 802 does not diagnose the third and fourth FCcontrollers 746/748, which are instead diagnosed by firmware executingon the data manager blades 406. The architecture also includes PCIconfiguration software 1108, which configures the PCI bus 722, the PCIXbus 724, and each of the devices connected to them. In one embodiment,the PCI configuration software 1108 is executed by the loader 1104.

The architecture also includes an embedded operating system andassociated services 1118. In one embodiment, the operating system 1118comprises an embedded version of the Linux operating system distributedby Red Hat, Inc. Other operating systems 1118 are contemplatedincluding, but not limited to, Hard Hat Linux from Monta Vista Software,VA Linux, an embedded version of Windows NT from Microsoft Corporation,VxWorks from Wind River of Alameda, Calif., Microsoft Windows CE, andApple Mac OS X 10.2. Although the operating systems listed above executeon Intel x86 processor architecture platforms, other processorarchitecture platforms are contemplated. The operating system services1118 include serial port support, interrupt handling, a consoleinterface, multi-tasking capability, network protocol stacks, storageprotocol stacks, and the like. The architecture also includes devicedriver software for execution with the operating system 1118. Inparticular, the architecture includes an Ethernet device driver 1112 forcontrolling the Ethernet controller 732, and FC device drivers 1116 forcontrolling the first and second FC controllers 742/744. In particular,an FC device driver 1116 must include the ability for the firstcontroller 742 to function as a FC target to receive commands from thehost computers 302 and an FC device driver 1116 must include the abilityfor the second controller 744 to function as a FC initiator to initiatecommands to the storage controller 308 and to any target externaldevices 322 of FIG. 3 connected to the expansion I/O connectors 754. Thearchitecture also includes a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) 1114 thatabstracts the underlying application server blade 402 hardware to reducethe amount of development required to port a standard operating systemto the hardware platform.

The software architecture also includes an operating system-specificConfiguration Application Programming Interface (CAPI) client 1122 thatprovides a standard management interface to the storage controllers 308for use by application server blade 402 management applications. TheCAPI client 1122 includes a CAPI Link Manager Exchange (LMX) thatexecutes on the application server blade 402 and communicates with thedata manager blades 406. In one embodiment, the LMX communicates withthe data manager blades 406 via the high-speed I/O links 304 providedbetween the second FC controller 744 and the third and fourth FCcontrollers 746/748. The CAPI client 1122 also includes a CAPI clientapplication layer that provides an abstraction of CAPI services for useby device management applications executing on the application serverblade 402. The software architecture also includes storage managementsoftware 1126 that is used to manage the storage devices 112 coupled tothe storage appliance 202. In one embodiment, the software architecturealso includes RAID management software 1124 that is used to manage RAIDarrays comprised of the storage devices 112 controlled by the datamanager blades 406.

Finally, the software architecture includes one or more storageapplications 1128. Examples of storage applications 1128 executing onthe application servers 306 include, but are not limited to, thefollowing applications: data backup, remote mirroring, data snapshot,storage virtualization, data replication, hierarchical storagemanagement (HSM), data content caching, data storage provisioning, andfile services—such as network attached storage (NAS). An example ofstorage application software is the IPStor product provided byFalconStor Software, Inc. of Melville, N.Y. The storage applicationsoftware may also be referred to as “middleware” or “value-added storagefunctions.” Other examples of storage application software includeproducts produced by Network Appliance, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.,Veritas Software Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., and ComputerAssociates, Inc. of Islandia, N.Y. similar to the FalconStor IPStorproduct.

Advantageously, much of the software included in the application serverblade 402 software architecture may comprise existing software withlittle or no modification required. In particular, because theembodiment of the application server blade 402 of FIG. 8 substantiallyconforms to the x86 personal computer (PC) architecture, existingoperating systems that run on an x86 PC architecture require a modestamount of modification to run on the application server blade 402.Similarly, existing boot loaders, PCI configuration software, andoperating system HALs also require a relatively small amount ofmodification to run on the application server blade 402. Furthermore,because the DOC memories 838 provide a standard hard disk driveinterface, the boot loaders and operating systems require littlemodification, if any, to run on the application server blade 402 ratherthan on a hardware platform with an actual hard disk drive.Additionally, the use of popular FC controllers 742/744/746/748 andEthernet controllers 732 increases the likelihood that device driversalready exist for these devices for the operating system executing onthe application server blade 402. Finally, the use of standard operatingsystems increases the likelihood that many storage applications willexecute on the application server blade 402 with a relatively smallamount of modification required.

Advantageously, although in the embodiment of the storage appliance 202of FIG. 7 the data manager blades 406 and data gate blades 408 arecoupled to the application server blades 402 via local buses as istypical with host bus adapter-type (or host-dependent) storagecontrollers, the storage controllers 308 logically retain theirhost-independent (or stand-alone) storage controller nature because ofthe application server blade 402 architecture. That is, the applicationserver blade 402 includes the host bus adapter-type second interfacecontroller 744 which provides the internal host-independent I/O link 304to the third/fourth interface controllers 746/748, which in turn providean interface to the local buses for communication with the other bladesin the chassis 414 via the backplane 412. Because the third/fourthinterface controllers 746/748 are programmable by the data managerblades 406 via the local buses 516, the third/fourth interfacecontrollers 746/748 function as target interface controllers belongingto the storage controllers 308. This fact has software reuse andinteroperability advantages, in addition to other advantages mentioned.That is, the storage controllers 308 appear to the application servers306 and external devices 322 coupled to the expansion I/O connectors 754as stand-alone storage controllers. This enables the application servers306 and external devices 322 to communicate with the storage controllers308 as a FC device using non-storage controller-specific device drivers,rather than as a host bus adapter storage controller, which wouldrequire development of a proprietary device driver for each operatingsystem running on the application server 306 or external host computers322.

Notwithstanding the above advantages, another embodiment is contemplatedin which the second, third, and fourth FC controllers 744/746/748 ofFIG. 7 are not included in the application server blade 402 and areinstead replaced by a pair of PCIX bus bridges that couple the CPUsubsystem 714 directly to the PCIX buses 516 of the backplane 412. Oneadvantage of this embodiment is potentially lower component cost, whichmay lower the cost of the application server blade 402. Additionally,the embodiment may also provide higher performance, particularly inreduced latency and higher bandwidth without the intermediate I/O links.However, this embodiment may also require substantial softwaredevelopment, which may be costly both in time and money, to developdevice drivers running on the application server blade 402 and to modifythe data manager blade 406 firmware and software. In particular, thestorage controllers in this alternate embodiment are host-dependent hostbus adapters, rather than host-independent, stand-alone storagecontrollers. Consequently, device drivers must be developed for eachoperating system executing on the application server blade 402 to drivethe storage controllers.

Referring now to FIG. 12, a block diagram illustrating the storageappliance 202 of FIG. 5 in a fully fault-tolerant configuration in thecomputer network 200 of FIG. 2 is shown. That is, FIG. 12 illustrates astorage appliance 202 in which all blades are functioning properly. Incontrast, FIGS. 13 through 15 illustrate the storage appliance 202 inwhich one of the blades has failed and yet due to the redundancy of thevarious blades, the storage appliance 202 continues to provideend-to-end connectivity, thereby maintaining the availability of thedata stored on the storage devices 112. The storage appliance 202comprises the chassis 414 of FIG. 4 for enclosing each of the bladesincluded in FIG. 12. The embodiment of FIG. 12 includes a storageappliance 202 with two representative host computers 302A and 302B ofFIG. 3 redundantly coupled to the storage appliance 202 via I/Oconnectors 752. Each of the host computers 302 includes two I/O ports,such as FibreChannel, Ethernet, Infiniband, or other high-speed I/Oports. Each host computer 302 has one of its I/O ports coupled to one ofthe I/O connectors 752 of application server blade A 402A and the otherof its I/O ports coupled to one of the I/O connectors 752 of applicationserver blade B 402B. Although the host computers 302 are shown directlyconnected to the application server blade 402 I/O connectors 752, thehost computers 302 may be networked to a switch, router, or hub ofnetwork 114 that is coupled to the application server blade 402 I/Oconnectors 752/754.

The embodiment of FIG. 12 also includes two representative externaldevices 322 of FIG. 3 redundantly coupled to the storage appliance 202via expansion I/O connectors 754. Although the external devices 322 areshown directly connected to the application server blade 402 I/Oconnectors 754, the external devices 322 may be networked to a switch,router, or hub that is coupled to the application server blade 402 I/Oconnectors 754. Each external device 322 includes two I/O ports, such asFibreChannel, Ethernet, Infiniband, or other high-speed I/O ports. Eachexternal device 322 has one of its I/O ports coupled to one of theexpansion I/O connectors 754 of application server blade A 402A and theother of its I/O ports coupled to one of the expansion I/O connectors754 of application server blade B 402B. The external devices 322 mayinclude, but are not limited to, other host computers, a tape drive orother backup type device, a storage controller or storage appliance, aswitch, a router, or a hub. The external devices 322 may communicatedirectly with the storage controllers 308 via the expansion I/Oconnectors 754 and port combiners 842 of FIG. 8, without the need forintervention by the application servers 306. Additionally, theapplication servers 306 may communicate directly with the externaldevices 322 via the port combiners 842 and expansion I/O connectors 754,without the need for intervention by the storage controllers 308. Thesedirect communications are possible, advantageously, because the I/O link304 between the second interface controller 744 ports of the applicationserver 306 and the third interface controller 746 ports of storagecontroller A 308A and the I/O link 304 between the second interfacecontroller 744 ports of the application server 306 and the fourthinterface controller 748 ports of storage controller B 308B areexternalized by the inclusion of the port combiners 842. That is, theport combiners 842 effectively create a blade area network (BAN) on theapplication server blade 402 that allows inclusion of the externaldevices 322 in the BAN to directly access the storage controllers 308.Additionally, the BAN enables the application servers 306 to directlyaccess the external devices 322.

In one embodiment, the storage application software 1128 executing onthe application server blades 402 includes storagevirtualization/provisioning software and the external devices 322include storage controllers and/or other storage appliances that areaccessed by the second interface controllers 744 of the applicationservers 306 via port combiners 842 and expansion I/O port connectors754. Advantageously, the virtualization/provisioning servers 306 maycombine the storage devices controlled by the external storagecontrollers/appliances 322 and the storage devices 112 controlled by theinternal storage controllers 308 when virtualizing/provisioning storageto the host computers 302.

In another embodiment, the storage application software 1128 executingon the application server blades 402 includes storage replicationsoftware and the external devices 322 include a remote host computersystem on which the data is replicated that is accessed by the secondinterface controllers 744 of the application servers 306 via portcombiners 842 and expansion I/O port connectors 754. If the remote siteis farther away than the maximum distance supported by the I/O linktype, then the external devices 322 may include a repeater or router toenable communication with the remote site.

In another embodiment, the storage application software 1128 executingon the application server blades 402 includes data backup software andthe external devices 322 include a tape drive or tape farm, for backingup the data on the storage devices 112, which is accessed by the secondinterface controllers 744 of the application servers 306 via portcombiners 842 and expansion I/O port connectors 754. The backup server306 may also back up to the tape drives data of other storage devices onthe network 200, such as direct attached storage of the host computers302.

In another embodiment, the external devices 322 include hostcomputers—or switches or routers or hubs to which host computers arenetworked—which directly access the storage controllers 308 via thethird/fourth interface controllers 746/748 via expansion I/O connectors754 and port combiners 842. In one embodiment, the storage controllers308 may be configured to present, or zone, two different sets of logicalstorage devices, or logical units, to the servers 306 and to theexternal host computers 322.

The embodiment of FIG. 12 includes two groups of physical storagedevices 112A and 112B each redundantly coupled to the storage appliance202. In one embodiment, each physical storage device of the two groupsof storage devices 112A and 112B includes two FC ports, forcommunicating with the storage appliance 202 via redundant FC arbitratedloops. For illustration purposes, the two groups of physical storagedevices 112A and 112B may be viewed as two groups of logical storagedevices 112A and 112B presented for access to the application servers306 and to the external devices 322. The logical storage devices 112Aand 112B may be comprised of a grouping of physical storage devices A112A and/or physical storage devices B 112B using any of well-knownmethods for grouping physical storage devices, including but not limitedto mirroring, striping, or other redundant array of inexpensive disks(RAID) methods. The logical storage devices 112A and 112B may alsocomprise a portion of a single physical storage device or a portion of agrouping of physical storage devices. In one embodiment, under normaloperation, i.e., prior to a failure of one of the blades of the storageappliance 202, the logical storage devices A 112A are presented to theapplication servers 306 and to the external devices 322 by storagecontroller A 308A, and the logical storage devices B 112B are presentedto the application servers 306 and external devices 322 by storagecontroller B 308B. However, as described below, if the data managerblade 406 of one of the storage controllers 308 fails, the logicalstorage devices 112A or 112B previously presented by the failing storagecontroller 308 will also be presented by the remaining, i.e.,non-failing, storage controller 308. In one embodiment, the logicalstorage devices 112 are presented as SCSI logical units.

The storage appliance 202 physically includes two application serverblades 402A and 402B of FIG. 7, two data manager blades 406A and 406B ofFIG. 7, and two data gate blades 408A and 408B of FIG. 5. FIG. 12 isshaded to illustrate the elements of application server A 306A,application server B 306B, storage controller A 308A, and storagecontroller B 308B of FIG. 4 based on the key at the bottom of FIG. 12.Storage controller A 308A comprises data manager blade A 406A, the firstinterface controllers 1206 of the data gate blades 408, and the thirdinterface controllers 746 of the application server blades 402; storagecontroller B 308B comprises data manager blade B 406B, the secondinterface controllers 1208 of the data gate blades 408, and the fourthinterface controllers 748 of the application server blades 402;application server A 306A comprises CPU subsystem 714 and the first andsecond interface controllers 742/744 of application server blade A 402A;application server B 306B comprises CPU subsystem 714 and the first andsecond interface controllers 742/744 of application server blade B 402B.In one embodiment, during normal operation, each of the applicationserver blades 402 accesses the physical storage devices 112 via each ofthe storage controllers 308 in order to obtain maximum throughput.

As in FIG. 7, each of the application server blades 402 includes first,second, third, and fourth dual channel FC controllers 742/744/746/748.Port1 of the first FC controller 742 of each application server blade402 is coupled to a respective one of the I/O ports of host computer A302A, and port2 of the first FC controller 742 of each applicationserver blade 402 is coupled to a respective one of the I/O ports of hostcomputer B 302B. Each of the application server blades 402 also includesa CPU subsystem 714 coupled to the first and second FC controllers742/744. Port1 of each of the second, third, and fourth FC controllers744/746/748 of each application server blade 402 are coupled to eachother via port combiner 842A of FIG. 8, and port2 of each controller744/746/748 of each application server blade 402 are coupled to eachother via port combiners 842B of FIG. 8. As in FIG. 7, the third FCcontroller 746 of application server blade A 402A is coupled to PCIX bus516A, the fourth FC controller 748 of application server blade A 402A iscoupled to PCIX bus 516B, the third FC controller 746 of applicationserver blade B 402B is coupled to PCIX bus 516C, and the fourth FCcontroller 748 of application server blade B 402B is coupled to PCIX bus516D. The Ethernet interface controllers 732, CPLDs 712, and BCI buses718 of FIG. 7 are not shown in FIG. 12.

As in FIG. 7, data manager blade A 406A includes a bus bridge/memorycontroller 704 that bridges PCIX bus 516A and PCIX bus 516C and controlsmemory 706, and data manager blade B 406B includes a bus bridge/memorycontroller 704 that bridges PCIX bus 516B and PCIX bus 516D and controlsmemory 706. Hence, the third FC controllers 746 of both applicationserver blades 402A and 402B are coupled to transfer data to and from thememory 706 of data manager blade A 406A via PCIX buses 516A and 516C,respectively, and the fourth FC controllers 748 of both applicationserver blades 402A and 402B are coupled to transfer data to and from thememory 706 of data manager blade B 406B via PCIX buses 516B and 516D,respectively. Additionally, the data manager blade A 406A CPU 702 ofFIG. 7 is coupled to program the third FC controllers 746 of both theapplication server blades 402A and 402B via PCIX bus 516A and 516C,respectively, and the data manager blade B 406B CPU 702 of FIG. 7 iscoupled to program the fourth FC controllers 748 of both the applicationserver blades 402A and 402B via PCIX bus 516B and 516D, respectively.

Each of data gate blades 408A and 408B include first and second dual FCcontrollers 1206 and 1208, respectively. In one embodiment, the FCcontrollers 1206/1208 each comprise a JNIC-1560 Milano dual channelFibreChannel to PCI-X controller developed by the JNI Corporation™ thatperforms the FibreChannel protocol for transferring FibreChannel packetsbetween the storage devices 112 and the storage appliance 202. The PCIXinterface of the data gate blade A 408A first FC controller 1206 iscoupled to PCIX bus 516A, the PCIX interface of the data gate blade A408A second FC controller 1208 is coupled to PCIX bus 516B, the PCIXinterface of the data gate blade B 408B first FC controller 1206 iscoupled to PCIX bus 516C, and the PCIX interface of the data gate bladeB 408B second FC controller 1208 is coupled to PCIX bus 516D. The firstand second FC controllers 1206/1208 function as FC initiator devices forinitiating commands to the storage devices 112. In one embodiment, suchas the embodiment of FIG. 24, one or more of the first and second FCcontrollers 1206/1208 ports may function as FC target devices forreceiving commands from other FC initiators, such as the externaldevices 322. In the embodiment of FIG. 12, a bus bridge 1212 of datagate blade A 408A couples PCIX buses 516A and 516B and a bus bridge 1212of data gate blade B 408B couples PCIX buses 516C and 516D. Hence, thefirst FC controllers 1206 of both data gate blades 408A and 408B arecoupled to transfer data to and from the memory 706 of data managerblade A 406A via PCIX buses 516A and 516C, respectively, and the secondFC controllers 1208 of both data gate blades 408A and 408B are coupledto transfer data to and from the memory 706 of data manager blade B 406Bvia PCIX buses 516B and 516D, respectively. Additionally, the datamanager blade A 406A CPU 702 of FIG. 7 is coupled to program the firstFC controllers 1206 of both the data gate blades 408A and 408B via PCIXbus 516A and 516C, respectively, and the data manager blade B 406B CPU702 of FIG. 7 is coupled to program the second FC controllers 1208 ofboth the data gate blades 408A and 408B via PCIX bus 516B and 516D,respectively.

In the embodiment of FIG. 12, port1 of each of the first and secondinterface controllers 1206/1208 of data gate blade A 408A and of storagedevices B 112B is coupled to a port combiner 1202 of data gate blade A408A, similar to the port combiner 842 of FIG. 8, for including each ofthe FC devices in a FC arbitrated loop configuration. Similarly, port2of each of the first and second interface controllers 1206/1208 of datagate blade A 408A and of storage devices A 112A is coupled to a portcombiner 1204 of data gate blade A 408A; port1 of each of the first andsecond interface controllers 1206/1208 of data gate blade B 408B and ofstorage devices A 112A is coupled to a port combiner 1202 of data gateblade B 408B; port2 of each of the first and second interfacecontrollers 1206/1208 of data gate blade B 408B and of storage devices B112B is coupled to a port combiner 1204 of data gate blade B 408B. Inanother embodiment, the storage devices 112 are coupled to the data gateblades 408 via point-to-point links through a FC loop switch. The portcombiners 1202/1204 are coupled to external connectors 1214 to connectthe storage devices 112 to the data gate blades 408. In one embodiment,the connectors 1214 comprise FC SFPs, similar to SFPs 752A and 752B ofFIG. 7, for coupling to FC links to the storage devices 112.

Advantageously, the redundant storage controllers 308 and applicationservers 306 of the embodiment of FIG. 12 of the storage appliance 202provide active-active failover fault-tolerance, as described below withrespect to FIGS. 13 through 15 and 17 through 22, such that if any oneof the storage appliance 202 blades fails, the redundant blade takesover for the failed blade to provide no loss of availability to datastored on the storage devices 112. In particular, if one of theapplication server blades 402 fails, the primary data manager blade 406deterministically kills the failed application server blade 402, andprograms the I/O ports of the third and fourth interface controllers746/748 of the live application server blade 402 to take over theidentity of the failed application server blade 402, such that theapplication server 306 second interface controller 744 (coupled to thethird or fourth interface controllers 746/748 via the port combiners842) and the external devices 322 (coupled to the third or fourthinterface controllers 746/748 via the port combiners 842 and expansionI/O connectors 754) continue to have access to the data on the storagedevices 112; additionally, the live application server blade 402programs the I/O ports of the first interface controller 742 to takeover the identity of the failed application server blade 402, such thatthe host computers 302 continue to have access to the data on thestorage devices 112, as described in detail below.

FIGS. 13 through 15 will now be described. FIGS. 13 through 15illustrate three different failure scenarios in which one blade of thestorage appliance 202 has failed and how the storage appliance 202continues to provide access to the data stored on the storage devices112.

Referring now to FIG. 13, a block diagram illustrating the computernetwork 200 of FIG. 12 in which data gate blade 408A has failed isshown. FIG. 13 is similar to FIG. 12, except that data gate blade 408Ais not shown in order to indicate that data gate blade 408A has failed.However, as may be seen, storage appliance 202 continues to make thedata stored in the storage devices 112 available in spite of the failureof a data gate blade 408. In particular, data gate blade B 408Bcontinues to provide a data path to the storage devices 112 for each ofthe data manager blades 406A and 406B. Data manager blade A 406Aaccesses data gate blade B 408B via PCIX bus 516C and data manager bladeB 406B accesses data gate blade B 408B via PCIX bus 516D through thechassis 414 backplane 412. In one embodiment, data manager blade A 406Adetermines that data gate blade A 408A has failed because data managerblade A 406A issues a command to data gate blade A 408A and data gateblade A 408A has not completed the command within a predetermined timeperiod. In another embodiment, data manager blade A 406A determines thatdata gate blade A 408A has failed because data manager blade A 406Adetermines that a heartbeat of data gate blade A 408A has stopped.

If data gate blade A 408A fails, the data manager blade A 406A CPU 702programs the data gate blade B 408B first interface controller 1206 viadata manager blade A 406A bus bridge 704 and PCIX bus 516C to accessstorage devices A 112A via data gate blade B 408B first interfacecontroller 1206 port1, and data is transferred between storage devices A112A and data manager blade A 406A memory 706 via data gate blade B 408Bport combiner 1202, data gate blade B 408B first interface controller1206 port1, PCIX bus 516C, and data manager blade A 406A bus bridge 704.Similarly, data manager blade A 406A CPU 702 programs the data gateblade B 408B first interface controller 1206 via data manager blade A406A bus bridge 704 and PCIX bus 516C to access storage devices B 112Bvia data gate blade B 408B first interface controller 1206 port2, anddata is transferred between storage devices B 112B and data managerblade A 406A memory 706 via data gate blade B 408B port combiner 1204,data gate blade B 408B first interface controller 1206 port2, PCIX bus516C, and data manager blade A 406A bus bridge 704. Advantageously, thestorage appliance 202 continues to provide availability to the storagedevices 112 data until the failed data gate blade A 408A can be replacedby hot-unplugging the failed data gate blade A 408A from the chassis 414backplane 412 and hot-plugging a new data gate blade A 408A into thechassis 414 backplane 412.

Referring now to FIG. 14, a block diagram illustrating the computernetwork 200 of FIG. 12 in which data manager blade A 406A has failed isshown. FIG. 14 is similar to FIG. 12, except that data manager blade A406A is not shown in order to indicate that data manager blade A 406Ahas failed. However, as may be seen, storage appliance 202 continues tomake the data stored in the storage devices 112 available in spite ofthe failure of a data manager blade 406. In particular, data managerblade B 406B provides a data path to the storage devices 112 for theapplication server blade A 402A CPU subsystem 714 and the externaldevices 322 via the application server blade A 402A fourth interfacecontroller 748 and PCIX bus 516B; additionally, data manager blade B406B continues to provide a data path to the storage devices 112 for theapplication server blade B 402B CPU subsystem 714 and external devices322 via the application server blade B 402B fourth interface controller748 and PCIX bus 516D, as described after a brief explanation of normaloperation.

In one embodiment, during normal operation (i.e., in a configurationsuch as shown in FIG. 12 prior to failure of data manager blade A 406A),data manager blade A 406A owns the third interface controller 746 ofeach of the application server blades 402 and programs each of the portsof the third interface controllers 746 with an ID for identifying itselfon its respective arbitrated loop, which includes itself, thecorresponding port of the respective application server blade 402 secondand fourth interface controllers 744/748, and any external devices 322connected to the respective application server blade 402 correspondingexpansion I/O connector 754. In one embodiment, the ID comprises aunique world-wide name. Similarly, data manager blade B 406B owns thefourth interface controller 748 of each of the application server blades402 and programs each of the ports of the fourth interface controllers748 with an ID for identifying itself on its respective arbitrated loop.Consequently, when a FC packet is transmitted on one of the arbitratedloops by one of the second interface controllers 744 or by an externaldevice 322, the port of the third interface controller 746 or fourthinterface controller 748 having the ID specified in the packet obtainsthe packet and provides the packet on the appropriate PCIX bus 516 toeither data manager blade A 406A or data manager blade B 406B dependingupon which of the data manager blades 406 owns the interface controller.

When data manager blade B 406B determines that data manager blade A 406Ahas failed, data manager blade B 406B disables the third interfacecontroller 746 of each of the application server blades 402. In oneembodiment, data manager blade B 406B disables, or inactivates, theapplication server blade 402 third interface controllers 746 via the BCIbus 718 and CPLD 712 of FIG. 7, such that the third interface controller746 ports no longer respond to or transmit packets on their respectivenetworks. Next, in one embodiment, data manager blade B 406B programsthe fourth interface controllers 748 to add the FC IDs previously heldby respective ports of the now disabled respective third interfacecontrollers 746 to each of the respective ports of the respective fourthinterface controllers 748 of the application server blades 402. Thiscauses the fourth interface controllers 748 to impersonate, or take overthe identity of, the respective now disabled third interface controller746 ports. That is, the fourth interface controller 748 ports respond astargets of FC packets specifying the new IDs programmed into them, whichIDs were previously programmed into the now disabled third interfacecontroller 746 ports. In addition, the fourth interface controllers 748continue to respond as targets of FC packets with their original IDsprogrammed at initialization of normal operation. Consequently, commandsand data previously destined for data manager blade A 406A via the thirdinterface controllers 746 are obtained by the relevant fourth interfacecontroller 748 and provided to data manager blade B 406B. Additionally,commands and data previously destined for data manager blade B 406B viathe fourth interface controllers 748 continue to be obtained by therelevant fourth interface controller 748 and provided to data managerblade B 406B. This operation is referred to as a multi-ID operationsince the ports of the non-failed data gate blade 408 fourth interfacecontrollers 748 are programmed with multiple FC IDs and thereforerespond to two FC IDs per port rather than one. Additionally, asdescribed above, in one embodiment, during normal operation, datamanager blade A 406A and data manager blade B 406B present differentsets of logical storage devices to the application servers 306 andexternal devices 322 associated with the FC IDs held by the third andfourth interface controllers 746/748. Advantageously, when data managerblade A 406A fails, data manager blade B 406B continues to present thesets of logical storage devices to the application servers 306 andexternal devices 322 associated with the FC IDs according to thepre-failure ID assignments using the multi-ID operation.

Data manager blade B 406B CPU 702 programs the application server bladeA 402A fourth interface controller 748 via data manager blade B 406B busbridge 704 and PCIX bus 516B and programs the application server blade B402B fourth interface controller 748 via data manager blade B 406B busbridge 704 and PCIX bus 516D; data is transferred between applicationserver blade A 402A CPU subsystem 714 memory 806 of FIG. 8 and datamanager blade B 406B memory 706 via application server blade A 402Asecond interface controller 744, port combiner 842A or 842B, applicationserver blade A 402A fourth interface controller 748, PCIX bus 516B, anddata manager blade B 406B bus bridge 704; data is transferred betweenapplication server blade B 402B CPU subsystem 714 memory 806 of FIG. 8and data manager blade B 406B memory 706 via application server blade B402B second interface controller 744, port combiner 842A or 842B,application server blade B 402B fourth interface controller 748, PCIXbus 516D, and data manager blade B 406B bus bridge 704; data may betransferred between the application server blade A 402A expansion I/Oconnectors 754 and data manager blade B 406B memory 706 via portcombiner 842A or 842B, application server blade A 402A fourth interfacecontroller 748, PCIX bus 516B, and data manager blade B 406B bus bridge704; data may be transferred between the application server blade B 402Bexpansion I/O connectors 754 and data manager blade B 406B memory 706via port combiner 842A or 842B, application server blade B 402B fourthinterface controller 748, PCIX bus 516D, and data manager blade B 406Bbus bridge 704.

Furthermore, if data manager blade A 406A fails, data manager blade B406B continues to provide a data path to the storage devices 112 viaboth data gate blade A 408A and data gate blade B 408B via PCIX bus 516Band 516D, respectively, for each of the application server blade 402 CPUsubsystems 714 and for the external devices 322. In particular, the datamanager blade B 406B CPU 702 programs the data gate blade A 408A secondinterface controller 1208 via data manager blade B 406B bus bridge 704and PCIX bus 516B to access the storage devices 112 via data gate bladeA 408A second interface controller 1208; and data is transferred betweenthe storage devices 112 and data manager blade B 406B memory 706 viadata gate blade A 408A port combiner 1202 or 1204, data gate blade A408A second interface controller 1208, PCIX bus 516B, and data managerblade B 406B bus bridge 704. Similarly, the data manager blade B 406BCPU 702 programs the data gate blade B 408B second interface controller1208 via data manager blade B 406B bus bridge 704 and PCIX bus 516D toaccess the storage devices 112 via data gate blade B 408B secondinterface controller 1208; and data is transferred between the storagedevices 112 and data manager blade B 406B memory 706 via data gate bladeB 408B port combiner 1202 or 1204, data gate blade B 408B secondinterface controller 1208, PCIX bus 516D, and data manager blade B 406Bbus bridge 704. Advantageously, the storage appliance 202 continues toprovide availability to the storage devices 112 data until the faileddata manager blade A 406A can be replaced by removing the failed datamanager blade A 406A from the chassis 414 backplane 412 and hot-plugginga new data manager blade A 406A into the chassis 414 backplane 412.

In one embodiment, the backplane 412 includes dedicated out-of-bandsignals used by the data manager blades 406 to determine whether theother data manager blade 406 has failed or been removed from the chassis414. One set of backplane 412 signals includes a heartbeat signalgenerated by each of the data manager blades 406. Each of the datamanager blades 406 periodically toggles a respective backplane 412heartbeat signal to indicate it is functioning properly. Each of thedata manager blades 406 periodically examines the heartbeat signal ofthe other data manager blade 406 to determine whether the other datamanager blade 406 is functioning properly. In addition, the backplane412 includes a signal for each blade of the storage appliance 202 toindicate whether the blade is present in the chassis 414. Each datamanager blade 406 examines the presence signal for the other datamanager blade 406 to determine whether the other data manager blade 406has been removed from the chassis 414. In one embodiment, when one ofthe data manager blades 406 detects that the other data manager blade406 has failed, e.g., via the heartbeat signal, the non-failed datamanager blade 406 asserts and holds a reset signal to the failing datamanager blade 406 via the backplane 412 in order to disable the failingdata manager blade 406 to reduce the possibility of the failing datamanager blade 406 disrupting operation of the storage appliance 202until the failing data manager blade 406 can be replaced, such as byhot-swapping.

Referring now to FIG. 15, a block diagram illustrating the computernetwork 200 of FIG. 12 in which application server blade A 402A hasfailed is shown. FIG. 15 is similar to FIG. 12, except that applicationserver blade A 402A is not shown in order to indicate that applicationserver blade A 402A has failed. However, as may be seen, storageappliance 202 continues to make the data stored in the storage devices112 available in spite of the failure of an application server blade402. In particular, application server blade B 402B provides a data pathto the storage devices 112 for the host computers 302 and externaldevices 322.

If application server blade A 402A fails, application server blade B402B continues to provide a data path to the storage devices 112 viaboth data manager blade A 406A and data manager blade B 406B via PCIXbus 516C and 516D, respectively, for the application server blade B 402BCPU subsystem 714 and the external devices 322. In particular, the datamanager blade A 406A CPU 702 programs the application server blade B402B third interface controller 746 via bus bridge 704 and PCIX bus516C; data is transferred between the data manager blade A 406A memory706 and the application server blade B 402B CPU subsystem 714 memory 806of FIG. 8 via data manager blade A 406A bus bridge 704, PCIX bus 516C,application server blade B 402B third interface controller 746, portcombiner 842A or 842B, and application server blade B 402B secondinterface controller 744; data is transferred between the data managerblade A 406A memory 706 and the external devices 322 via data managerblade A 406A bus bridge 704, PCIX bus 516C, application server blade B402B third interface controller 746, and port combiner 842A or 842B;data is transferred between the application server blade B 402B memory806 and host computer A 302A via port1 of the application server blade B402B first interface controller 742; and data is transferred between theapplication server blade B 402B memory 806 and host computer B 302B viaport2 of the application server blade B 402B first interface controller742.

Host computer A 302A, for example among the host computers 302,re-routes requests to application server blade B 402B I/O connector 752coupled to port1 of the first interface controller 742 in one of twoways.

In one embodiment, host computer A 302A includes a device driver thatresides in the operating system between the filesystem software and thedisk device drivers, which monitors the status of I/O paths to thestorage appliance 202. When the device driver detects a failure in anI/O path, such as between host computer A 302A and application server A306A, the device driver begins issuing I/O requests to applicationserver B 306B instead. An example of the device driver is softwaresubstantially similar to the DynaPath agent product developed byFalconStor Software, Inc.

In a second embodiment, application server blade B 402B detects thefailure of application server blade A 402A, and reprograms the ports ofits first interface controller 742 to take over the identity of thefirst interface controller 742 of now failed application server blade A402A via a multi-ID operation. Additionally, the data manager blades 406reprogram the ports of the application server blade B 402B third andfourth interface controllers 746/748 to take over the identities of thethird and fourth interface controllers 746/748 of now failed applicationserver blade A 402A via a multi-ID operation. This embodiment providesfailover operation in a configuration in which the host computers 302and external devices 322 are networked to the storage appliance 202 viaa switch or router via network 114. In one embodiment, the data managerblades 406 detect the failure of application server blade A 402A andresponsively inactivate application server blade A 402A to prevent itfrom interfering with application server blade B 402B taking over theidentity of application server blade A 402A. Advantageously, the storageappliance 202 continues to provide availability to the storage devices112 data until the failed application server blade A 402A can bereplaced by removing the failed application server blade A 402A from thechassis 414 backplane 412 and hot-replacing a new application serverblade A 402A into the chassis 414 backplane 412. The descriptionsassociated with FIGS. 17 through 22 provide details of how the datamanager blades 406 determine that an application server blade 402 hasfailed, how the data manager blades 406 inactivate the failedapplication server blade 406, and how the identity of the failedapplication server blade 406 is taken over by the remaining applicationserver blade 406.

Referring now to FIG. 16, a diagram of a prior art computer network 1600is shown. The computer network 1600 of FIG. 16 is similar to thecomputer network 100 of FIG. 1 and like-numbered items are alike.However, the computer network 1600 of FIG. 16 also includes a heartbeatlink 1602 coupling the two storage application servers 106, which areredundant active-active failover servers. That is, the storageapplication servers 106 monitor one another's heartbeat via theheartbeat link 1602 to detect a failure in the other storage applicationserver 106. If one of the storage application servers 106 fails asdetermined from the heartbeat link 1602, then the remaining storageapplication server 106 takes over the identify of the other storageapplication server 106 on the network 114 and services requests in placeof the failed storage application server 106. Typically, the heartbeatlink 1602 is an Ethernet link or FibreChannel link. That is, each of thestorage application servers 106 includes an Ethernet or FC controllerfor communicating its heartbeat on the heartbeat link 1602 to the otherstorage application server 106. Each of the storage application servers106 periodically transmits the heartbeat to the other storageapplication server 106 to indicate that the storage application server106 is still operational. Similarly, each storage application server 106periodically monitors the heartbeat from the other storage applicationserver 106 to determine whether the heartbeat stopped, and if so, infersa failure of the other storage application server 106. In response toinferring a failure, the remaining storage application server 106 takesover the identity of the failed storage application server 106 on thenetwork 114, such as by taking on the MAC address, world wide name, orIP address of the failed storage application server 106.

As indicated in FIG. 16, a situation may occur in which both storageapplication servers 106 are fully operational and yet a failure occurson the heartbeat link 1602. For example, the heartbeat link 1602 cablemay be damaged or disconnected. In this situation, each server 106infers that the other server 106 has failed because it no longerreceives a heartbeat from the other server 106. This condition may bereferred to as a “split brain” condition. An undesirable consequence ofthis condition is that each server 106 attempts to take over theidentity of the other server 106 on the network 114, potentially causinglack of availability of the data on the storage devices 112 to thetraditional server 104 and clients 102.

A means of minimizing the probability of encountering the split brainproblem is to employ dual heartbeat links. However, even this solutionis not a deterministic solution since the possibility still exists thatboth heartbeat links will fail. Advantageously, an apparatus, system andmethod for deterministically solving the split brain problem aredescribed herein.

A further disadvantage of the network 1600 of FIG. 16 will now bedescribed. A true failure occurs on one of the storage applicationservers 106 such that the failed server 106 no longer transmits aheartbeat to the other server 106. In response, the non-failed server106 sends a command to the failed server 106 on the heartbeat link 1602commanding the failed server 106 to inactivate itself, i.e., to abandonits identity on the network 114, namely by not transmitting orresponding to packets on the network 114 specifying its ID. Thenon-failed server 106 then attempts to take over the identity of thefailed server 106 on the network 114. However, the failed server 106 maynot be operational enough to receive and perform the command to abandonits identity on the network 114; yet, the failed server 106 may still beoperational enough to maintain its identity on the network, namely totransmit and/or respond to packets on the network 114 specifying its ID.Consequently, when the non-failed server 106 attempts to take over theidentity of the failed server 106, this may cause lack of availabilityof the data on the storage devices 112 to the traditional server 104 andclients 102. Advantageously, an apparatus, system and method for thenon-failed server 106 to deterministically inactivate on the network 114a failed application server 306 integrated into the storage appliance202 of FIG. 2 is described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 17, a block diagram illustrating the storageappliance 202 of FIG. 2 is shown. The storage appliance 202 of FIG. 17includes application server blade A 402A, application server blade B402B, data manager blade A 406A, data manager blade B 406B, andbackplane 412 of FIG. 4. The storage appliance 202 also includes aheartbeat link 1702 coupling application server blade A 402A andapplication server blade B 402B. The heartbeat link 1702 of FIG. 17serves a similar function as the heartbeat link 1602 of FIG. 16. In oneembodiment, the heartbeat link 1702 may comprise a link external to thestorage appliance 202 chassis 414 of FIG. 4, such as an Ethernet linkcoupling an Ethernet port of the Ethernet interface controller 732 ofFIG. 7 of each of the application server blades 402, or such as a FClink coupling a FC port of the first FC interface controller 742 of FIG.7 of each of the application server blades 402, or any other suitablecommunications link for transmitting and receiving a heartbeat. Inanother embodiment, the heartbeat link 1702 may comprise a link internalto the storage appliance 202 chassis 414, and in particular, may becomprised in the backplane 412. In this embodiment, a device driversends the heartbeat over the internal link. By integrating theapplication server blades 402 into the storage appliance 202 chassis414, the heartbeat link 1702 advantageously may be internal to thechassis 414, which is potentially more reliable than an externalheartbeat link 1702. Application server blade A 402A transmits onheartbeat link 1702 to application server blade B 402B an A-to-B linkheartbeat 1744, and application server blade B 402B transmits onheartbeat link 1702 to application server blade A 402A a B-to-A linkheartbeat 1742. In one of the internal heartbeat link 1702 embodiments,the heartbeat link 1702 comprises discrete signals on the backplane 412.

Each of the data manager blades 406 receives a blade present statusindicator 1752 for each of the blade slots of the chassis 414. Each ofthe blade present status indicators 1752 indicates whether or not ablade—such as the application server blades 402, data manager blades406, and data gate blades 408—are present in the respective slot of thechassis 414. That is, whenever a blade is removed from a slot of thechassis 414, the corresponding blade present status indicator 1752indicates the slot is empty, and whenever a blade is inserted into aslot of the chassis 414, the corresponding blade present statusindicator 1752 indicates that a blade is present in the slot.

Application server blade A 402A generates a health-A status indicator1722, which is provided to each of the data manager blades 406, toindicate the health of application server blade A 402A. In oneembodiment, the health comprises a three-bit number indicating therelative health (7 being totally healthy, 0 being least healthy) of theapplication server blade A 402A based on internal diagnosticsperiodically executed by the application server blade A 402A to diagnoseits health. That is, some subsystems of application server blade A 402Amay be operational, but others may not, resulting in the report of ahealth lower than totally healthy. Application server blade B 402Bgenerates a similar status indicator, denoted health-B status indicator1732, which is provided to each of the data manager blades 406, toindicate the health of application server blade B 402B.

Application server blade A 402A also generates a direct heartbeat-Astatus indicator 1726, corresponding to the A-to-B link heartbeat 1744,but which is provided directly to each of the data manager blades 406rather than to application server blade B 402B. That is, whenapplication server blade A 402A is operational, it generates a heartbeatboth to application server blade B 402B via A-to-B link heartbeat 1744and to each of the data manager blades 406 via direct heartbeat-A 1726.Application server blade B 402B generates a similar direct heartbeat-Bstatus indicator 1736, which is provided directly to each of the datamanager blades 406.

Application server blade A 402A generates an indirect heartbeat B-to-Astatus indicator 1724, which is provided to each of the data managerblades 406. The indirect heartbeat B-to-A status indicator 1724indicates the receipt of B-to-A link heartbeat 1742. That is, whenapplication server blade A 402A receives a B-to-A link heartbeat 1742,application server blade A 402A generates a heartbeat on indirectheartbeat B-to-A status indicator 1724, thereby enabling the datamanager blades 406 to determine whether the B-to-A link heartbeat 1742is being received by application server blade A 402A. Application serverblade B 402B generates an indirect heartbeat A-to-B status indicator1734, similar to indirect heartbeat B-to-A status indicator 1724, whichis provided to each of the data manager blades 406 to indicate thereceipt of A-to-B link heartbeat 1744. The indirect heartbeat B-to-Astatus indicator 1724 and indirect heartbeat A-to-B status indicator1734, in conjunction with the direct heartbeat-A status indicator 1726and direct heartbeat-B status indicator 1736, enable the data managerblades 406 to deterministically detect when a split brain condition hasoccurred, i.e., when a failure of the heartbeat link 1702 has occurredalthough the application server blades 402 are operational.

Data manager blade B 406B generates a kill A-by-B control 1712 providedto application server blade A 402A to kill, or inactivate, applicationserver blade A 402A. In one embodiment, killing or inactivatingapplication server blade A 402A denotes inactivating the I/O ports ofthe application server blade A 402A coupling the application serverblade A 402A to the network 114, particularly the ports of the interfacecontrollers 732/742/744/746/748 of FIG. 7. The kill A-by-B control 1712is also provided to application server blade B 402B as a statusindicator to indicate to application server blade B 402B whether datamanager blade B 406B has killed application server blade A 402A. Datamanager blade B 406B also generates a kill B-by-B control 1714 providedto application server blade B 402B to kill application server blade B402B, which is also provided to application server blade A 402A as astatus indicator. Similarly, data manager blade A 406A generates a killB-by-A control 1716 provided to application server blade B 402B to killapplication server blade B 402B, which is also provided to applicationserver blade A 402A as a status indicator, and data manager blade A 406Agenerates a kill A-by-A control 1718 provided to application serverblade A 402A to kill application server blade A 402A, which is alsoprovided to application server blade B 402B as a status indicator.

Advantageously, the kill controls 1712-1718 deterministically inactivatethe respective application server blade 402. That is, the kill controls1712-1718 inactivate the application server blade 402 without requiringany operational intelligence or state of the application server blade402, in contrast to the system of FIG. 16, in which the failed storageapplication server 106 must still have enough operational intelligenceor state to receive the command from the non-failed storage applicationserver 106 to inactivate itself.

In one embodiment, a data manager blade 406 kills an application serverblade 402 by causing power to be removed from the application serverblade 402 specified for killing. In this embodiment, the kill controls1712-1718 are provided on the backplane 412 to power modules, such aspower manager blades 416 of FIG. 4, and instruct the power modules toremove power from the application server blade 402 specified forkilling.

The status indicators and controls shown in FIG. 17 are logicallyillustrated. In one embodiment, logical status indicators and controlsof FIG. 17 correspond to discrete signals on the backplane 412. However,other means may be employed to generate the logical status indicatorsand controls. For example, in one embodiment, the blade controlinterface (BCI) buses 718 and CPLDs 712 shown in FIGS. 7, 21, and 22 maybe employed to generate and receive the logical status indicators andcontrols shown in FIG. 17. Operation of the status indicators andcontrols of FIG. 17 will now be described with respect to FIGS. 18through 20.

Referring now to FIG. 18, a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerantactive-active failover of the application server blades 402 of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 17 is shown. FIG. 18 primarily describesthe operation of the data manager blades 406, whereas FIGS. 19 and 20primarily describe the operation of the application server blades 402.Flow begins at block 1802.

At block 1802, one or more of the data manager blades 406 is reset. Thereset may occur because the storage appliance 202 is powered up, orbecause a data manager blade 406 is hot-plugged into a chassis 414 slot,or because one data manager blade 406 reset the other data manager blade406. Flow proceeds to block 1804.

At block 1804, the data manager blades 406 establish between themselvesa primary data manager blade 406. In particular, the primary datamanager blade 406 is responsible for monitoring the health andheartbeat-related status indicators of FIG. 17 from the applicationserver blades 402 and deterministically killing one of the applicationserver blades 402 in the event of a heartbeat link 1702 failure orapplication server blade 402 failure in order to deterministicallyaccomplish active-active failover of the application server blades 402.Flow proceeds to decision block 1806.

At decision block 1806, the data manager blades 406 determine whetherthe primary data manager blade 406 has failed. If so, flow proceeds toblock 1808; otherwise, flow proceeds to block 1812.

At block 1808, the secondary data manager blade 406 becomes the primarydata manager blade 406 in place of the failed data manager blade 406.Flow proceeds to block 1812.

At block 1812, the primary data manager blade 406 (and secondary datamanager blade 406 if present) receives and monitors the statusindicators from each application server blade 402. In particular, theprimary data manager blade 406 receives the health-A 1722, health-B1732, indirect heartbeat B-to-A 1724, indirect heartbeat A-to-B 1734,direct heartbeat A 1726, and direct heartbeat B 1736 status indicatorsof FIG. 17. Flow proceeds to decision block 1814.

At decision block 1814, the primary data manager blade 406 determineswhether direct heartbeat A 1726 has stopped. If so, flow proceeds toblock 1816; otherwise, flow proceeds to decision block 1818.

At block 1816, the primary data manager blade 406 kills applicationserver blade A 402A. That is, if data manager blade A 406A is theprimary data manager blade 406, then data manager blade A 406A killsapplication server blade A 402A via the kill A-by-A control 1718, and ifdata manager blade B 406B is the primary data manager blade 406, thendata manager blade B 406B kills application server blade A 402A via thekill A-by-B control 1712. As described herein, various embodiments aredescribed for the primary data manager blade 406 to kill the applicationserver blade 402, such as by resetting the application server blade 402or by removing power from it. In particular, the primary data managerblade 406 causes the application server blade 402 to be inactive on itsnetwork 114 I/O ports, thereby enabling the remaining application serverblade 402 to reliably assume the identity of the killed applicationserver blade 402 on the network 114. Flow proceeds to decision block1834.

At decision block 1818, the primary data manager blade 406 determineswhether direct heartbeat B 1736 has stopped. If so, flow proceeds toblock 1822; otherwise, flow proceeds to decision block 1824.

At block 1822, the primary data manager blade 406 kills applicationserver blade B 402B. That is, if data manager blade A 406A is theprimary data manager blade 406, then data manager blade A 406A killsapplication server blade B 402B via the kill B-by-A control 1716, and ifdata manager blade B 406B is the primary data manager blade 406, thendata manager blade B 406B kills application server blade B 402B via thekill B-by-B control 1714. Flow proceeds to decision block 1834.

At decision block 1824, the primary data manager blade 406 determineswhether both indirect heartbeat B-to-A 1724 and indirect heartbeatA-to-B 1734 have stopped (i.e., the heartbeat link 1702 has failed orboth servers have failed). If so, flow proceeds to decision block 1826;otherwise, flow returns to block 1812.

At decision block 1826, the primary data manager blade 406 examines thehealth-A status 1722 and health-B status 1732 to determine whether thehealth of application server blade A 402A is worse than the health ofapplication server blade B 402B. If so, flow proceeds to block 1828;otherwise, flow proceeds to block 1832.

At block 1828, the primary data manager blade 406 kills applicationserver blade A 402A. Flow proceeds to decision block 1834.

At block 1832, the primary data manager blade 406 kills applicationserver blade B 402B. It is noted that block 1832 is reached in the casethat both of the application server blades 402 are operational andtotally healthy but the heartbeat link 1702 is failed. In this case, aswith all the failure cases, the system management subsystem of the datamanager blades 406 notifies the system administrator that a failure hasoccurred and should be remedied. Additionally, in one embodiment, statusindicators on the faceplates of the application server blades 402 may belit to indicate a failure of the heartbeat link 1702. Flow proceeds todecision block 1834.

At decision block 1834, the primary data manager blade 406 determineswhether the killed application server blade 402 has been replaced. Inone embodiment, the primary data manager blade 406 determines whetherthe killed application server blade 402 has been replaced by detecting atransition on the blade present status indicator 1752 of the slotcorresponding to the killed application server blade 402 from present tonot present and then to present again. If decision block 1834 wasarrived at because of a failure of the heartbeat link 1702, then theadministrator may repair the heartbeat link 1702, and then simply removeand then re-insert the killed application server blade 402. If thekilled application server blade 402 has been replaced, flow proceeds toblock 1836; otherwise, flow returns to decision block 1834.

At block 1836, the primary data manager blade 406 unkills the replacedapplication server blade 402. In one embodiment, unkilling the replacedapplication server blade 402 comprises releasing the relevant killcontrol 1712/1714/1716/1718 in order to bring the killed applicationserver blade 402 out of a reset state. Flow returns to block 1812.

Other embodiments are contemplated in which the primary data managerblade 406 determines a failure of an application server blade 402 atdecision blocks 1814 and 1818 by means other than the direct heartbeats1726/1736. For example, the primary data manager blade 406 may receivean indication (such as from temperature sensors 816 of FIG. 8) that thetemperature of one or more of the components of the application serverblade 402 has exceeded a predetermined limit. Furthermore, the directheartbeat status indicator 1726/1736 of an application server blade 402may stop for any of various reasons including, but not limited to, afailure of the CPU subsystem 714 or a failure of one of the I/Ointerface controllers 732/742/744/746/748.

Referring now to FIG. 19, a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerantactive-active failover of the application server blades 402 of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 17 is shown. Flow begins at block 1902.

At block 1902, application server blade A 402A provides it's A-to-B linkheartbeat 1744 to application server blade B 402B, and applicationserver blade B 402B provides it's B-to-A link heartbeat 1724 toapplication server blade A 402A of FIG. 17. Additionally, applicationserver blade A 402A provides health-A 1722, indirect heartbeat B-to-A1724, and direct heartbeat-A 1726 to the data manager blades 406, andapplication server blade B 402B provides health-B 1732, indirectheartbeat A-to-B 1734, and direct heartbeat-B 1736 to the data managerblades 406. In one embodiment, the frequency with which the applicationserver blades 402 provide their health 1722/1732 may be different fromthe frequency with which the direct heartbeat 1726/1736 and/or linkheartbeats 1742/1744 are provided. Flow proceeds to block 1904.

At block 1904, application server blade A 402A monitors the B-to-A linkheartbeat 1742 and application server blade B 402B monitors the A-to-Blink heartbeat 1744. Flow proceeds to decision block 1906.

At decision block 1906, each application server blade 402 determineswhether the other application server blade 402 link heartbeat 1742/1744has stopped. If so, flow proceeds to decision block 1908; otherwise,flow returns to block 1902.

At decision block 1908, each application server blade 402 examines therelevant kill signals 1712-1718 to determine whether the primary datamanager blade 406 has killed the other application server blade 402. Ifso, flow proceeds to block 1912; otherwise, flow returns to decisionblock 1908.

At block 1912, the live application server blade 402 takes over theidentity of the killed application server blade 402 on the network 114.In various embodiments, the live application server blade 402 takes overthe identity of the killed application server blade 402 on the network114 by assuming the MAC address, IP address, and/or world wide name ofthe corresponding killed application server blade 402 I/O ports. The I/Oports may include, but are not limited to, FibreChannel ports, Ethernetports, and Infiniband ports. Flow ends at block 1912.

In an alternate embodiment, a portion of the I/O ports of each of theapplication server blades 402 are maintained in a passive state, whileother of the I/O ports are active. When the primary data manager blade406 kills one of the application server blades 402, one or more of thepassive I/O ports of the live application server blade 402 take over theidentity of the I/O ports of the killed application server blade 402 atblock 1912.

As may be seen from FIG. 19, the storage appliance 202 advantageouslydeterministically performs active-active failover from the failedapplication server blade 402 to the live application server blade 402 byensuring that the failed application server blade 402 is killed, i.e.,inactive on the network 114, before the live application server blade402 takes over the failed application server blade 402 identity, therebyavoiding data unavailability due to conflict of identity on the network.

Referring now to FIG. 20, a flowchart illustrating fault-tolerantactive-active failover of the application server blades 402 of thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 17 according to an alternate embodiment isshown. FIG. 20 is identical to FIG. 19, and like-numbered blocks arealike, except that block 2008 replaces decision block 1908. That is, ifat decision block 1906 it is determined that the other applicationserver blade 402 heartbeat stopped, then flow proceeds to block 2008rather than decision block 1908; and flow unconditionally proceeds fromblock 2008 to block 1912.

At block 2008, the live application server blade 402 pauses long enoughfor the primary data manager blade 406 to kill the other applicationserver blade 402. In one embodiment, the live application server blade402 pauses a predetermined amount of time. In one embodiment, thepredetermined amount of time is programmed into the application serverblades 402 based on the maximum of the amount of time required by theprimary data manager blade 406 to detect a failure of the linkheartbeats 1742/1744 via the indirect heartbeats 1724/1734 and tosubsequently kill an application server blade 402, or to detect anapplication server blade 402 failure via the direct heartbeats 1726/1736and to subsequently kill the failed application server blade 402.

As may be seen from FIG. 20, the storage appliance 202 advantageouslydeterministically performs active-active failover from the failedapplication server blade 402 to the live application server blade 402 byensuring that the failed application server blade 402 is killed, i.e.,inactive on the network 114, before the live application server blade402 takes over the failed application server blade 402 identity, therebyavoiding data unavailability due to conflict of identity on the network.

Referring now to FIG. 21, a block diagram illustrating theinterconnection of the various storage appliance 202 blades via the BCIbuses 718 of FIG. 7 is shown. FIG. 21 includes data manager blade A406A, data manager blade B 406B, application server blade A 402A,application server blade B 402B, data gate blade A 408A, data gate bladeB 408B, and backplane 412 of FIG. 4. Each application server blade 402includes CPLD 712 of FIG. 7 coupled to CPU 802 of FIG. 8 and I/Ointerface controllers 732/742/744/746/748 via ISA bus 716 of FIG. 7. TheCPLD 712 generates a reset signal 2102, which is coupled to the resetinput of CPU 802 and I/O interface controllers 732/742/744/746/748, inresponse to predetermined control input received from a data managerblade 406 on one of the BCI buses 718 coupled to the CPLD 712. Each ofthe data manager blades 406 includes CPU 706 of FIG. 7 coupled to a CPLD2104 via an ISA bus 2106. Each data gate blade 408 includes I/Ointerface controllers 1206/1208 of FIG. 12 coupled to a CPLD 2108 via anISA bus 2112. The CPLD 2108 generates a reset signal 2114, which iscoupled to the reset input of the I/O interface controllers 1206/1208,in response to predetermined control input received from a data managerblade 406 on one of the BCI buses 718 coupled to the CPLD 2108. Thebackplane 412 includes four BCI buses denoted BCI-A 718A, BCI-B 718B,BCI-C 718C, and BCI-D 718D. BCI-A 718A couples the CPLDs 712, 2104, and2108 of data manager blade A 406A, application server blade A 402A, anddata gate blade A 408A, respectively. BCI-B 718B couples the CPLDs 712,2104, and 2108 of data manager blade A 406A, application server blade B402B, and data gate blade B 408B, respectively. BCI-C 718C couples theCPLDs 712, 2104, and 2108 of data manager blade B 406B, applicationserver blade A 402A, and data gate blade A 408A, respectively. BCI-D718D couples the CPLDs 712, 2104, and 2108 of data manager blade B 406B,application server blade B 402B, and data gate blade B 408B,respectively.

In the embodiment of FIG. 21, the application server blade 402 CPUs 802generate the health and heartbeat statuses 1722/1724/1726/1732/1734/1736via CPLDs 712 on the BCI buses 718, which are received by the datamanager blade 406 CPLDs 2104 and conveyed to the CPUs 706 via ISA buses2106, thereby enabling the primary data manager blade 406 todeterministically distinguish a split brain condition from a trueapplication server blade 402 failure. Similarly, the data manager blade406 CPUs 706 generate the kill controls 1712/1714/1716/1718 via CPLDs2104 on the BCI buses 718, which cause the application server blade 402CPLDs 712 to generate the reset signals 2102 to reset the applicationserver blades 402, thereby enabling a data manager blade 406 todeterministically inactivate an application server blade 402 so that theother application server blade 402 can take over its network identity,as described above. Advantageously, the apparatus of FIG. 21 does notrequire the application server blade 402 CPU 802 or I/O interfacecontrollers 732/742/744/746/748 to be in a particular state or have aparticular level of operational intelligence in order for the primarydata manager blade 406 to inactivate them.

Referring now to FIG. 22, a block diagram illustrating theinterconnection of the various storage appliance 202 blades via the BCIbuses 718 of FIG. 7 and discrete reset signals according to an alternateembodiment is shown. FIG. 22 is identical to FIG. 21, and like-numberedelements are alike, except that reset signals 2102 of FIG. 21 are notpresent in FIG. 22. Instead, a reset-A signal 2202 is provided from thebackplane 412 directly to the reset inputs of the application serverblade A 402A CPU 802 and I/O interface controllers 732/742/744/746/748,and a reset-B signal 2204 is provided from the backplane 412 directly tothe reset inputs of the application server blade B 402B CPU 802 and I/Ointerface controllers 732/742/744/746/748. Application server blade A402A CPU 802 also receives the reset-B signal 2204 as a statusindicator, and application server blade B 402B CPU 802 also receives thereset-A signal 2202 as a status indicator. Data manager blade A 406Agenerates a reset A-by-A signal 2218 to reset application server blade A402A and generates a reset B-by-A signal 2216 to reset applicationserver blade B 402B. Data manager blade B 406B generates a reset B-by-Bsignal 2214 to reset application server blade B 402B and generates areset A-by-B signal 2212 to reset application server blade A 402A. Thereset-A signal 2202 is the logical OR of the reset A-by-A signal 2218and the reset A-by-B signal 2212. The reset-B signal 2204 is the logicalOR of the reset B-by-B signal 2214 and the reset B-by-A signal 2216.

In the embodiment of FIG. 22, the application server blade 402 CPUs 802generate the health and heartbeat statuses 1722/1724/1726/1732/1734/1736via CPLDs 712 on the BCI buses 718 which are received by the datamanager blade 406 CPLDs 2104 and conveyed to the CPUs 706 via ISA buses2106, thereby enabling the primary data manager blade 406 todeterministically distinguish a split brain condition from a trueapplication server blade 402 failure. Similarly, the data manager blade406 CPUs 706 generate the reset signals 2212/2214/2216/2218 via CPLDs2104, which reset the application server blades 402, thereby enabling adata manager blade 406 to deterministically inactivate an applicationserver blade 402 so that the other application server blade 402 can takeover its network identity, as described above. Advantageously, theapparatus of FIG. 22 does not require the application server blade 402CPU 802 or I/O interface controllers 732/742/744/746/748 to be in aparticular state or having a particular level of operationalintelligence in order for the primary data manager blade 406 toinactivate them.

Referring now to FIG. 23, a block diagram illustrating an embodiment ofthe storage appliance 202 of FIG. 2 comprising a single applicationserver blade 402 is shown. Advantageously, the storage appliance 202embodiment of FIG. 23 may be lower cost than the redundant applicationserver blade 402 storage appliance 202 embodiment of FIG. 12. FIG. 23 issimilar to FIG. 12 and like-numbered elements are alike. However, thestorage appliance 202 of FIG. 23 does not include application serverblade B 402B. Instead, the storage appliance 202 of FIG. 23 includes athird data gate blade 408 similar to data gate blade B 408B, denoteddata gate blade C 408C, in the chassis 414 slot occupied by applicationserver blade B 402B in the storage appliance 202 of FIG. 12. The datagate blade C 408C first interface controller 1206 is logically a portionof storage controller A 308A, and the second interface controller 1208is logically a portion of storage controller B 308B, as shown by theshaded portions of data gate blade C 408C. In one embodiment not shown,data gate blade C 408C comprises four I/O port connectors 1214 ratherthan two.

Data manager blade A 406A communicates with the data gate blade C 408Cfirst interface controller 1206 via PCIX bus 516C, and data managerblade B 406B communicates with the data gate blade C 408C secondinterface controller 1208 via PCIX bus 516D. Port2 of external device A322A is coupled to the data gate blade C 408C I/O connector 1214 coupledto port combiner 1202, and port2 of external device B 322B is coupled tothe data gate blade C 408C I/O connector 1214 coupled to port combiner1204, thereby enabling the external devices 322 to have redundant directconnections to the storage controllers 308, and in particular, redundantpaths to each of the data manager blades 406 via the redundant interfacecontrollers 746/748/1206/1208. The data manager blades 406 program thedata gate blade C 408C interface controllers 1206/1208 as target devicesto receive commands from the external devices 322.

In one embodiment, if application server blade A 402A fails, the datamanager blades 406 program the data gate blade C 408C interfacecontroller 1206/1208 ports to take over the identities of theapplication server blade A 402A third/fourth interface controller746/748 ports. Conversely, if data gate blade C 408C fails, the datamanager blades 406 program the application server blade A 402Athird/fourth interface controller 746/748 ports to take over theidentities of the data gate blade C 408C interface controller 1206/1208ports. The embodiment of FIG. 23 may be particularly advantageous forout-of-band server applications, such as a data backup or data snapshotapplication, in which server fault-tolerance is not as crucial as inother applications, but where high data availability to the storagedevices 112 by the external devices 322 is crucial.

Referring now to FIG. 24, a block diagram illustrating an embodiment ofthe storage appliance 202 of FIG. 2 comprising a single applicationserver blade 402 is shown. Advantageously, the storage appliance 202embodiment of FIG. 24 may be lower cost than the redundant applicationserver blade 402 storage appliance 202 embodiment of FIG. 12 or then thesingle server embodiment of FIG. 23. FIG. 24 is similar to FIG. 12 andlike-numbered elements are alike. However, the storage appliance 202 ofFIG. 24 does not include application server blade B 402B. Instead, thestorage devices A 112A and storage devices B 112B are all coupled on thesame dual loops, thereby leaving the other data gate blade 408 I/Oconnectors 1214 available for connecting to the external devices 322.That is, port2 of external device A 322A is coupled to one I/O connector1214 of data gate blade B 408B, and port2 of external device B 322B iscoupled to one I/O connector 1214 of data gate blade A 408A, therebyenabling the external devices 322 to have redundant direct connectionsto the storage controllers 308, and in particular, redundant paths toeach of the data manager blades 406 via the redundant interfacecontrollers 746/748/1206/1208. The data manager blades 406 program thedata gate blade 408 interface controllers 1206/1208 as target devices toreceive commands from the external devices 322.

In one embodiment, if application server blade A 402A fails, the datamanager blades 406 program port1 of the data gate blade A 408A interfacecontrollers 1206/1208 to take over the identities of port1 of theapplication server blade A 402A third/fourth interface controllers746/748, and the data manager blades 406 program port2 of the data gateblade B 408B interface controllers 1206/1208 to take over the identitiesof port2 of the application server blade A 402A third/fourth interfacecontrollers 746/748. Additionally, if data gate blade A 408A fails, thedata manager blades 406 program port2 of the application server blade A402A third/fourth interface controllers 746/748 to take over theidentities of port1 of the data gate blade A 408A interface controller1206/1208 ports. Furthermore, if data gate blade B 408B fails, the datamanager blades 406 program port1 of the application server blade A 402Athird/fourth interface controllers 746/748 to take over the identitiesof port2 of the data gate blade B 408B interface controller 1206/1208ports. As with FIG. 23, the embodiment of FIG. 24 may be particularlyadvantageous for out-of-band server applications, such as a data backupor data snapshot application, in which server fault-tolerance is not ascrucial as in other applications, but where high data availability tothe storage devices 112 by the external devices 322 is crucial.

I/O interfaces typically impose a limit on the number of storage devicesthat may be connected on an interface. For example, the number of FCdevices that may be connected on a single FC arbitrated loop is 127.Hence, in the embodiment of FIG. 24, a potential disadvantage of placingall the storage devices 112 on the two arbitrated loops rather than fourarbitrated loops as in FIG. 23 is that potentially half the number ofstorage devices may be coupled to the storage appliance 202. Anotherpotential disadvantage is that the storage devices 112 must share thebandwidth of two arbitrated loops rather than the bandwidth of fourarbitrated loops. However, the embodiment of FIG. 24 has the potentialadvantage of being lower cost than the embodiments of FIG. 12 and/orFIG. 23.

Referring now to FIG. 25, a block diagram illustrating the computernetwork 200 of FIG. 2 and portions of the storage appliance 202 of FIG.12 and in detail one embodiment of the port combiner 842 of FIG. 8 isshown. The storage appliance 202 includes the chassis 414 of FIG. 4enclosing various elements of the storage appliance 202. The storageappliance 202 also illustrates one of the application server blade 402expansion I/O connectors 754 of FIG. 7. FIG. 25 also includes anexternal device 322 of FIG. 3 external to the chassis 414 with one ofits ports coupled to the expansion I/O connector 754. The expansion I/Oconnector 754 is coupled to the port combiner 842 by an I/O link 2506.The I/O link 2506 includes a transmit signal directed from the expansionI/O connector 754 to the port combiner 842, and a receive signaldirected from the port combiner 842 to the expansion I/O connector 754.

The storage appliance 202 also includes the application server blade 402CPU subsystem 714 coupled to an application server blade 402 secondinterface controller 744 via PCIX bus 724, the data manager blade A 406ACPU 702 coupled to the application server blade 402 third interfacecontroller 746 via PCIX bus 516, and the data manager blade B 406B CPU702 coupled to the application server blade 402 fourth interfacecontroller 748 via PCIX bus 516, all of FIG. 7. The storage appliance202 also includes the application server blade 402 CPLD 712 of FIG. 7.One port of each of the I/O interface controllers 744/746/748 is coupledto the port combiner 842 by a respective I/O link 2506.

In the embodiment of FIG. 25, the port combiner 842 comprises aFibreChannel arbitrated loop hub. The arbitrated loop hub includes fourFC port bypass circuits (PBCs), or loop resiliency circuits (LRCs),denoted 2502A, 2502B, 2502C, 2502D. Each LRC 2502 includes a 2-inputmultiplexer. The four multiplexers are coupled in a serial loop. Thatis, the output of multiplexer 2502A is coupled to one input ofmultiplexer 2502B, the output of multiplexer 2502B is coupled to oneinput of multiplexer 2502C, the output of multiplexer 2502C is coupledto one input of multiplexer 2502D, and the output of multiplexer 2502Dis coupled to one input of multiplexer 2502A. The second input ofmultiplexer 2502A is coupled to receive the transmit signal of the I/Olink 2506 coupled to the second interface controller 744 port; thesecond input of multiplexer 2502B is coupled to receive the transmitsignal of the I/O link 2506 coupled to the third interface controller746 port; the second input of multiplexer 2502C is coupled to receivethe transmit signal of the I/O link 2506 coupled to the fourth interfacecontroller 748 port; and the second input of multiplexer 2502D iscoupled to receive the transmit signal of the I/O link 2506 coupled tothe expansion I/O connector 754. The output of multiplexer 2502D isprovided as the receive signal of the I/O link 2506 to the second I/Ointerface controller port 744; the output of multiplexer 2502A isprovided as the receive signal of the I/O link 2506 to the third I/Ointerface controller port 746; the output of multiplexer 2502B isprovided as the receive signal of the I/O link 2506 to the fourth I/Ointerface controller port 748; the output of multiplexer 2502C isprovided as the receive signal of the I/O link 2506 to the expansion I/Oconnector 754.

Each multiplexer 2502 also receives a bypass control input 2512 thatselects which of the two inputs will be provided on the output of themultiplexer 2502. The application server blade 402 CPU subsystem 714provides the bypass control 2512 to multiplexer 2502A; the data managerblade A 406A CPU 702 provides the bypass control 2512 to multiplexer2502B; the data manager blade B 406B CPU 702 provides the bypass control2512 to multiplexer 2502C; and the application server blade 402 CPLD 712provides the bypass control 2512 to multiplexer 2502D. A value isgenerated on the respective bypass signal 2512 to cause the respectivemultiplexer 2502 to select the output of the previous multiplexer 2502,i.e., to bypass its respective interface controller 744/746/748 I/Oport, if the I/O port is not operational; otherwise, a value isgenerated on the bypass signal 2512 to cause the multiplexer 2502 toselect the input receiving the respective I/O link 2506 transmit signal,i.e., to enable the respective I/O port on the arbitrated loop. Inparticular, at initialization time, the application server blade 402 CPU714, data manager blade A 406A CPU 702, and data manager blade B 406BCPU 702 each diagnose their respective I/O interface controller744/746/748 to determine whether the respective I/O port is operationaland responsively control the bypass signal 2512 accordingly.Furthermore, if at any time during operation of the storage appliance202 the CPU 714/702/702 determines the I/O port is not operational, theCPU 714/702/702 generates a value on the bypass signal 2512 to bypassthe I/O port.

With respect to multiplexer 2502D, the CPLD 712 receives a presencedetected signal 2508 from the expansion I/O connector 754 to determinewhether an I/O link, such as a FC cable, is plugged into the expansionI/O connector 754. The port combiner 842 also includes a signal detector2504 coupled to receive the transmit signal of the I/O link 2506 coupledto the expansion I/O connector 754. The signal detector 2504 samples thetransmit signal and generates a true value if a valid signal is detectedthereon. The CPLD 712 generates a value on its bypass signal 2512 tocause multiplexer 2502D to select the output of multiplexer 2502C,(i.e., to bypass the expansion I/O connector 754, and consequently tobypass the I/O port in the external device 322 that may be connected tothe expansion I/O connector 754), if either the presence detected signal2508 or signal detected signal 2514 are false; otherwise, the CPLD 712generates a value on its bypass signal 2512 to cause multiplexer 2502Dto select the input receiving the transmit signal of the I/O link 2506coupled to the expansion I/O connector 754 (i.e., to enable the externaldevice 322 I/O port on the FC arbitrated loop). In one embodiment, theCPLD 712 generates the bypass signal 2512 in response to the applicationserver blade 402 CPU 702 writing a control value to the CPLD 712.

Although FIG. 25 describes an embodiment in which the port combiner 842of FIG. 8 is a FibreChannel hub, other embodiments are contemplated. Theport combiner 842 may include, but is not limited to, a FC switch orhub, an Infiniband switch or hub, or an Ethernet switch or hub.

The I/O links 304 advantageously enable redundant application servers306 to be coupled to architecturally host-independent, or stand-alone,redundant storage controllers 308. As may be observed from FIG. 25 andvarious of the other Figures, the port combiner 842 advantageouslyenables the I/O links 304 between the application servers 306 andstorage controllers 308 to be externalized beyond the chassis 414 toexternal devices 322. This advantageously enables the integratedapplication servers 306 to access the external devices 322 and enablesthe external devices 322 to directly access the storage controllers 308.

Although embodiments have been described in which the I/O links 304between the second I/O interface controller 744 and the third and fourthI/O interface controllers 746/748 is FibreChannel, other interfaces maybe employed. For example, a high-speed Ethernet or Infiniband interfacemay be employed. If the second interface controller 744 is an interfacecontroller that already has a device driver for the operating system orsystems to be run on the application server blade 402, then an advantageis gained in terms of reduced software development. Device drivers forthe QLogic ISP2312 have already been developed for many popularoperating systems, for example. This advantageously reduces softwaredevelopment time for employment of the application server blade 402embodiment described. Also, it is advantageous to select a link typebetween the second interface controller 744 and the third and fourthinterface controllers 746/748 which supports protocols that arefrequently used by storage application software to communicate withexternal storage controllers, such as FibreChannel, Ethernet, orInfiniband since they support the SCSI protocol and the internetprotocol (IP), for example. A link type should be selected whichprovides the bandwidth needed to transfer data according to the raterequirements of the application for which the storage appliance 202 issought to be used.

Similarly, although embodiments have been described in which the localbuses 516 between the various blades of storage appliance 202 is PCIX,other local buses may be employed, such as PCI, CompactPCI, PCI-Express,PCI-X2 bus, EISA bus, VESA bus, Futurebus, VME bus, MultiBus, RapidIObus, AGP bus, ISA bus, 3GIO bus, HyperTransport bus, or any similarlocal bus capable of transferring data at a high rate. For example, ifthe storage appliance 202 is to be used as a streaming video or audiostorage appliance, then the sustainable data rate requirements may bevery high, requiring a very high data bandwidth link between thecontrollers 744 and 746/748 and very high data bandwidth local buses. Inother applications lower bandwidth I/O links and local buses maysuffice. Also, it is advantageous to select third and fourth interfacecontrollers 746/748 for which storage controller 308 firmware hasalready been developed, such as the JNIC-1560, in order to reducesoftware development time.

Although embodiments have been described in which the application serverblades 402 execute middleware, or storage application software,typically associated with intermediate storage application server boxes,which have now been described as integrated into the storage appliance202 as application servers 306, it should be understood that the servers306 are not limited to executing middleware. Embodiments arecontemplated in which some of the functions of the traditional servers104 may also be integrated into the network storage appliance 202 andexecuted by the application server blade 402 described herein,particularly for applications in which the hardware capabilities of theapplication server blade 402 are sufficient to support the traditionalserver 104 application. That is, although embodiments have beendescribed in which storage application servers are integrated into thenetwork storage appliance chassis 414, it is understood that thesoftware applications traditionally executed on the traditionalapplication servers 104 may also be migrated to the application serverblades 402 in the network storage appliance 202 chassis 414 and executedthereon.

Although the present invention and its objects, features and advantageshave been described in detail, other embodiments are encompassed by theinvention. For example, although embodiments have been describedemploying dual channel I/O interface controllers, other embodiments arecontemplated using single channel interface controllers. Additionally,although embodiments have been described in which the redundant bladesof the storage appliance are duplicate redundant blades, otherembodiments are contemplated in which the redundant blades aretriplicate redundant or greater. Furthermore, although active-activefailover embodiments have been described, active-passive embodiments arealso contemplated.

Also, although the present invention and its objects, features andadvantages have been described in detail, other embodiments areencompassed by the invention. In addition to implementations of theinvention using hardware, the invention can be implemented in computerreadable code (e.g., computer readable program code, data, etc.)embodied in a computer usable (e.g., readable) medium. The computer codecauses the enablement of the functions or fabrication or both of theinvention disclosed herein. For example, this can be accomplishedthrough the use of general programming languages (e.g., C, C++, JAVA,and the like); GDSII databases; hardware description languages (HDL)including Verilog HDL, VHDL, Altera HDL (AHDL), and so on; or otherprogramming and/or circuit (i.e., schematic) capture tools available inthe art. The computer code can be disposed in any known computer usable(e.g., readable) medium including semiconductor memory, magnetic disk,optical disk (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and the like), and as a computerdata signal embodied in a computer usable (e.g., readable) transmissionmedium (e.g., carrier wave or any other medium including digital,optical or analog-based medium). As such, the computer code can betransmitted over communication networks, including Internets andintranets. It is understood that the invention can be embodied incomputer code and transformed to hardware as part of the production ofintegrated circuits. Also, the invention may be embodied as acombination of hardware and computer code.

Finally, those skilled in the art should appreciate that they canreadily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiments as a basisfor designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the samepurposes of the present invention without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

1. A server blade, comprising: a computer, having an input/output (I/O)port; and an I/O interface controller, comprising: an I/O port coupledvia an I/O link to said I/O port of said computer, for transferring datatherewith; and a local bus interface, for interfacing to a local bus;wherein the server blade comprises a field replaceable unit (FRU)including said computer and said I/O interface controller, configured toplug into a backplane comprising said local bus, thereby enabling datatransfers with other FRUs coupled to said backplane; wherein said I/Ointerface controller comprises a portion of a storage controller whoseremaining portions are comprised in said other FRUs coupled to saidbackplane; wherein said I/O interface controller is programmable viasaid local bus by a microprocessor of said storage controller to performdata transfers between said computer and storage devices controlled bysaid storage controller, wherein at least one of said other FRUscomprises said microprocessor.
 2. The server blade of claim 1, whereinsaid storage controller comprises a redundant array of inexpensive disks(RAID) controller.
 3. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said I/Oports are capable of transferring at least approximately 40 Megabytes(MB) of data per second.
 4. The server blade of claim 1, wherein saidI/O ports comprise FibreChannel ports.
 5. The server blade of claim 1,wherein said I/O ports comprise Ethernet ports.
 6. The server blade ofclaim 1, wherein said I/O ports comprise ports conforming to theInfiniBand Architecture Specification Release 1.0.a of Jun. 19,
 2001. 7.The server blade of claim 1, wherein said I/O ports comprise SCSI ports.8. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said local bus comprises a PCI-Xbus.
 9. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said local bus comprises aPCI bus.
 10. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said local buscomprises a PCI-Express bus.
 11. The server blade of claim 1, whereinsaid local bus comprises a VME bus.
 12. The server blade of claim 1,wherein said local bus comprises a bus conforming to the HyperTransportI/O Link Specification Revision 1.03 of Oct. 10,
 2001. 13. The serverblade of claim 1, wherein said local bus comprises a bus conforming tothe RapidIO Interconnect Specification Rev. 1.2 of June
 2002. 14. Theserver blade of claim 1, further comprising: a second I/O interfacecontroller, comprising: an I/O port coupled to said I/O port of saidcomputer, for communication therewith; and a local bus interface, forinterfacing to a second local bus comprised in said backplane; wherebysaid first and second I/O interface controllers enable data transferswith redundant FRUs coupled to said backplane via said first and secondlocal buses.
 15. The server blade of claim 14, wherein said second I/Ointerface controller I/O port is coupled to a second I/O port of saidcomputer.
 16. The server blade of claim 1, further comprising: a portcombiner, coupled to said computer I/O port and said I/O interfacecontroller I/O port, for enabling data transfers therebetween; a secondinterface controller, comprising: an I/O port coupled to said portcombiner, for communication with said computer I/O port; and a local businterface, for interfacing to a second local bus comprised in saidbackplane; whereby said first and second I/O interface controllersenable data transfers with redundant FRUs coupled to said backplane viasaid first and second local buses.
 17. The server blade of claim 1,wherein said computer comprises: a network interface, for interfacingthe server blade with host computers via a network.
 18. The server bladeof claim 1, wherein said I/O link is etched in a printed circuit boardcomprising the server blade FRU.
 19. The server blade of claim 1,wherein the server blade is hot-pluggable into said backplane.
 20. Theserver blade of claim 1, wherein said computer comprises: a non-volatilememory, for storing an operating system.
 21. The server blade of claim20, wherein said non-volatile memory comprises a solid state memory. 22.The server blade of claim 21, wherein said solid state memory comprisesa single chip, solid-state Flash memory providing a disk driveinterface.
 23. The server blade of claim 20, wherein said non-volatilememory comprises a 1-inch hard disk drive.
 24. The server blade of claim20, wherein said operating system comprises an operating system compiledfrom a version of an open source operating system.
 25. The server bladeof claim 1, wherein said computer comprises: a non-volatile memory, forstoring storage application software.
 26. The server blade of claim 25,wherein said storage application software comprises a data backupapplication.
 27. The server blade of claim 25, wherein said storageapplication software comprises a remote mirroring application.
 28. Theserver blade of claim 25, wherein said storage application softwarecomprises a data snapshot application.
 29. The server blade of claim 25,wherein said storage application software comprises a storagevirtualization application.
 30. The server blade of claim 25, whereinsaid storage application software comprises a file server application.31. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said computer comprises adiskless PC.
 32. The server blade of claim 1, wherein said computercomprises a central processing unit and a plurality of peripherals,wherein said plurality of peripherals conform to the peripherals of apersonal computer.
 33. The server blade of claim 1, wherein saidcomputer comprises a central processing unit and a plurality ofperipherals, wherein said plurality of peripherals are mapped into anaddress space of said central processing unit conforming to theperipheral mappings of a personal computer.
 34. The server blade ofclaim 1, further comprising: a port combiner, for coupling said computerI/O port and said I/O controller I/O port.
 35. The server blade of claim34, wherein said port combiner comprises a FibreChannel hub.